Again today I searched blogs, news sites and anything I could for news on the progress of Health Care Reform. Some days the news seems good, like the other day when Obama spoke to Senate Democrats and implored them not to abandon comprehensive reform. Today it didn't look good, when he seemed passive and spoke of Congress dropping the ball. Al Franken is pissed the white house hasn't offered more leadership. All of this is confusing and leaves me more and more worried nothing is going to get done.The consequences of inaction are devastating in every respect. Devastating for millions of people who are living in fear that any illness will destroy them financially and it will be rightly devastating for the Democratic Party. If Democrats fail to use the largest majorities they have had in a generation to enact their signature legislative proposal, one that they have fought for since the days of FDR, I don't know what the purpose of the Party is at this point.
The way forward is clear. The Senate needs to pass a reconciliation fix to their earlier bill and the House then needs to pass that and the original Senate bill. I have been a strong supporter of single payer or a strong public option. I was incredibly disappointed by the Senate bill. But there are simply too many lives on the line right now to hold out for a perfect bill. The recriminations can come later. What is important is that the bill on the table raises medicaid eligibility to 133% of the poverty level and subsidizes insurance for anyone up to 400% of the poverty line. It's not enough in the long run but it is a vast improvement over the status quo.
There are people, right now as I write this who are delaying getting a lump checked out, or ignoring other potentially life threatening conditions because they can't even pay for a check up. The ugly truth is that in the United States, the first thing we have to think about if we get sick, is money. It's a form of cruelty we inflict on each other by not taking care of this.
This congress may be the last chance for decades that we have to even make the limited step forward that is the Senate bill. Please, call your Senators, and your Representatives and make it clear, that failure on this issue is not acceptable.
(202) 224-3121 House and Senate switchboard.
