The most overused line in the health care fight has been, "something has to be done". Well, today was a step toward something. The White House is trying to get everyone to put their grievances out on the table.
As I watch this health care summit unfold on live television, I don't doubt that *something* will get accomplished. Either the Democrats will muscle a terrible bill through the Congress, by way of reconciliation (not out of the question at this point), or, our Congress will grow some balls and make a compromise. I don't care which path they choose, but get your heads out of your asses and realize that there is a world outside of your respective chambers. This was a remarkable thing, for a President to convince Congressional leadership to let what would otherwise have been a closed-door meeting, be aired on national television (of course CNN and MSNBC resorted to talking over them half the time, so I watched it on the internet).
It boils down to something Senator Chris Dodd said today, saying in effect, "There are enormous costs associated with our being here (referring to people losing insurance or their lives each day while their government sits on its hands). And Keith Olbermann said last night, it amounts to, "an American cry for help."
A lot of issues came up during the discussion, and thankfully, there was little mention of socialist plots or death panels. The Republicans take issue with the cost and the access to coverage, and the Democrats take issue with the quality of coverage and how it's handed out.
The White House Health Care reform site lays out the need for reform, and of course the President's plan is a slightly less costly version of the House bill.
All of these politicians hammer on the point that the American health care system is the best in the world...but why do only federal employees and the wealthy have access to its full spectrum of benefits? That's wrong.
I discovered some alarming things over the course of the day, involving horror stories of people not being able to pay for coverage. Either people's coverage is abruptly cancelled, or Medicare stops covering seniors' care, or people are denied coverage in the first place.
No one knows this about me save for a few select individuals, but, without health care, neither of my parents would likely be alive -- or else they would be in danger of succumbing to some terrible things. My mother has Blue Cross Blue Shield through her employer, and without that coverage, my life would be an entirely different set of circumstances right now. My Dad had an early prostate cancer diagnosis, and it was treated immediately (a few years ago), and all the costs were paid for. Upwards of $50,000 when it was all finished, with surgery costs, hospital stay, and the tests before and after the surgery he had.
The rest of those alarming things involve insurance companies denying coverage on the grounds of preexisting conditions. Among things that people have been denied coverage from include things that my family has, either in family history, or currently. Prostate cancer, Uteran cancer, Acne, pregnancy, having been treated for depression, and lung/heart disease.
I once had a mysterious low white blood cell count problem a few years back, and that would likely crop up in a reason to deny me coverage, if something is not done with this reform. I'm taking medication for depression, and have acne breakouts -- all things that can deny coverage in some states. Presently, if I got sick, and the right insurance company looked at my medical history and saw that I am seeing a psychologist, they would deny me coverage on the grounds of me having been treated within the last six months by said psychologist. All those are "preexisting conditions" to some companies.
My mother now has uteran cancer, and is being treated. A total hysterectomy in September removed the immediate threat, but her full program is not over. The University of Michigan health system diagnosed a middle stage aggressive cancer that would have killed her had it not been found. What would have happened if her insurance company declared that a preexisting condition? I've looked at her medical bills, and it's enough to put us in the poor house. Chemo visits are thousands of dollars, and one shot she gets is about a thousand dollars each time. My sister-in-law is pregnant, making my brother -- who is covered under *her* insurance, and "expectant father." That is grounds for denial in some states.
And lastly, my grandfather. He's 91 years old, and he almost died last week. His heart nearly stopped working, but quick action on the part of whatever doctor he saw saved him. But then they found other infections, and lung cancer. He's on Medicare, and he was in the emergency room, followed by the regular hospital, for one full week. Why can't people who are half his age have access to Medicare, or an insurance exchange, or something modeled on the federal employees' program? My grandfather would have died on a hospital bed instead of being able to get Hospice care to help him go peacefully when the time comes, if he didn't have Medicare, and because that coverage didn't decide to classify that lung cancer as a preexisting condition, since the man smoked socially for sixty years. If my family is fortunate enough to have survived all these scares, and if I'm fortunate enough to avoid a scare with my well-being, people that are way worse off than us should be as fortunate. It's just wrong not to try and have that fortune be the norm.
If the Congressional Budget Office says this plan is budget-neutral, that should be good enough. I don't want to hear another year of people whining about some socialist takeover of the health care system (Eric Cantor), or that it federally-funds abortions (John Boehner), or that it removes any choice people have to get the best care for themselves (John Kyl), or that it costs too much (Mitch McConnell). It's all bullshit, and they know it.
Politics shouldn't decide whether someone gets treated for an illness. The people who are lying on a hospital bed dying because they can't pay to get better should decide that. This is about "life panels" as Olbermann put it, because this is a bill to improve lives, not take them away. Starting over is the real death panel.
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