The Public Option and Change We Can Believe In
The latest media rumblings suggest that the public option, a hallmark of the Obama Health Care Plan, is in trouble. It seems the GOP inspired screaming and yelling, born of ignorance, is scaring our elected representatives into quite possibly walking away from this essential element of the plan.
This would be most unfortunate. Anyone who has taken even a cursory glance at this lengthy piece of legislation knows that it doesn’t involve a federal government takeover of the entire American health care system. There are no death panels. No one is pulling the plug on Grandma or denying care to special needs children. If you have private insurance you can keep it. If you have a preexisting condition, you cannot be barred from getting health care insurance.
Frankly, from my point of view, the bill as written does not go far enough. I would prefer a single-payer system along the lines of the care available in Europe. But that’s me, and I learned to compromise at an early age.
Yet I cannot understand why anyone would oppose the public option. The public option is not mandatory for all. It simply provides a means for those without affordable health care coverage to get it. Have you ever seen the cost of current health care insurance plans for individuals and families where there is no employe contribution? Outrageous. What can possibly be wrong with a public option? Nothing.
However, the dysfunctional Republican party will do anything to defeat a Presidential initiative. So, the facts of the legislation notwithstanding, the fear-and-hate-mongers who lead what is left of the Republican party have frightened otherwise decent, hardworking, honest citizens into thinking that the proposed health care reform will take us on a rollicking ride on the slippery slope to socialism. Just as bad are those Democratic legislators, afraid of losing their cushy jobs at the mid-term elections, who are now backing away from the public option portion of the bill.
Failure to pass meaningful health care reform–with a public option– will emasculate the Obama presidency. The wars rage on (although they are hardly mentioned these days). Big Money, bailed out by Bush, is back on its bonus bonanza, albeit this time with our money. Mortgage foreclosures and unemployment continue to climb. If meaningful health care reform does not pass, then I am not sure we got the change we voted for last November.
Posted: August 18th, 2009 under National Politics.