Last night the Democrats passed a historic health care reform bill. They came through in the clutch. Many kudos and much credit are due them all especially to President Obama and Speaker Pelosi. I couldn't be more proud of them. I have blogged many times about the need for the Democrats to use every tool at their disposal to pass their agenda and not be intimidated by the Repuglicans. It seemed for so long that they were bending over backwards to be bipartisan even when the Repugs only were interested in defeating them and not at all interested in solving any problems for the American people. They were even so brazen as to mouth the words that if they defeated Obama on health care, "it would be his Waterloo. It would break him." It was all about defeating Obama - not about doing what was right for the American people. I said over and over that the Democrats were trying to be too nice while the Republicans were playing hardball. Well, finally, the Dems gave them a taste of their own medicine, and I couldn't be happier.
President Obama had it right. It wasn't about politics. It was about doing right and standing on principle in order to help the American people. The Repugs were very glib about saying "the American people want this" and "the American people don't want that" AS IF they spoke for the American people. But their scare tactics didn't work when it came right down to it. This health reform bill, although not perfect, will do so much good, will right so many wrongs and will reign in the egregious unethical practices of the health insurance industry which puts profits ahead of the health and welfare of the people. For starters, it will eliminate immediately the denial of health care insurance to children because of preexisting conditions. It will eliminate rescissions, the practice of terminating a person's insurance after they come down with an expensive sickness. It will create community health care clinics. It will fill in the "doughnut hole" in the prescription drug benefit for seniors. It is a virtual pot pourri of good things.
And to boot much needed student loan reform will ride right along with it. That's what I call a super Bonus Jack. The practice of charging students outrageous penalties and fees and then not offering them any consumer protections, not allowing them to discharge debts in bankruptcy, is over. The student loan corporations like Sallie Mae even had the laws changed so that they can garnish seniors' social security checks! While Sallie Mae made enormous profits, students were reamed by the student loan industry. This was not a government take over; it was a government TAKE BACK. Students loans were initially in the public sphere and were TAKEN OVER by corporate interests in the quest for privatization of all public functions initiated by the Reagan administration. Now we can expect students to be treated in a more humane manner BY THEIR GOVERNMENT than they were by the heartless money grubbing private student loan corporations. I hope that something can be done for those already suffering under the weight of student loans and penalties that they can't hope to pay off in their life times.
But back to health care reform. Young people will be able to stay on their parents' policies till age 26. There will be no annual or lifetime caps on benefits. 32 million more people will be covered. The national debt will be paid down. The Republican Trojan horse of Medicare Advantage (privatized Medicare) will be dealt with. On the revenue side, those making over $200,000 will be taxed (including investment income!!!) to pay for it - something we've urged all along. The rich have made out like bandits for the last 30 years. It's time to balance budgets on their backs and give the middle class a break. So fiscal responsibility in action has been provided by the Dems while only putting the nation into debt with tax breaks, wars and prescription drug benefits was provided by the Bush administration. These are all good things. What's not to like? Some of the benefits do not kick in till 2014. Why the wait? And the cost containment features for the private market are weak. There's no reason why the insurance companies can't continue to raise prices, but perhaps I'm missing something.
I don't really care about whether or not there is a public option. But I do care about cost containment. While it is a good deal for government according to the CBO, reasonably priced policies for families and individuals may not be forthcoming. That was the purpose of the public option - to bring costs down by providing lower cost alternatives. However, this bill is a work in progress. It can be built on in the future. The Republicans will try to negate the good effects of it in an ongoing struggle just as the Democrats will try to add to it, to make it even more robust and better.
Far from being socialistic, the bill depends on a fully privatized market for health insurance but one in which there is tighter regulation of private health insurance corporations. Of course, any regulations of private corporations is considered to be socialistic by the laissez-faire, capitalistic Republicans. The interesting thing about the new health insurance world is that in some respects it is like the Dutch system which Frank Thomas and I have been blogging about for the past year. The Dutch system relies on private health insurance corporations for the actual provision of health insurance but costs are kept down and egregious practices banned by tight government regulation to provide universal coverage. The new American system will start to resemble the Dutch system in many ways. One way it will not resemble it is that there will be no basic well defined insurance plan which will apply to everybody. The American market will continue to be a hodge podge, and I would suspect that the insurance companies will fight back and exploit every possible loophole in their quest to put profits before people. So this new bill is not the end of the process; it is only a beginning, but what a beginning!
You know I feel better about my country today than I did yesterday. President Obama, Nancy Pelosi - you and the other Democrats have restored my faith that you can be effective, you can get things done, you do have a spine after all and you won't wimp out and back down to Republicans. You're the greatest. Keep it up. We need you. The American people need you. Please get a few nights good rest and then come back fighting! I'm proud of you.
