Taking stock - and a deep breath - on health care reform

The last few months have really provided many opportunities to get all emotional and riled up over the roller coaster ride of proposed House, and then Senate bills that woulda, shoulda fixed our broken disaster of a health care system and insurance in America. The idea was that with Obama’s election, a real world, modern health care plan for all Americans would ride the groundswell of good vibes that seemed to follow the young, energetic new president.

It didn’t exactly happen that way. Perhaps a lot of us were being unrealistic in our expectations - at the worst, which doesn’t exactly seem too terrible. We want the best for the citizens of our country. How bad is that?

I think a lot of our idealism and energy was, unfortunately, deliberately redirected by the vociferously evil opponents of any sort of reform and their nitwit teabagger cheering section. I got caught up in it with a lot of my progressive compatriots when it seemed like the dirty money of the lobbyists was, indeed, taking over the process. I’m still very wary that they might have.

Anytime emotions take over, the rational thinking processes are compromised.

I believe I might even have said unkind things about Harry Reid. Shame on me.

I still think Nancy Pelosi did her best, too. 

This bill that has passed out of the Senate isn’t completely evil, although it is more stingy than the House version. With a little bit of luck, some of the House bills provisions might make it into the final compromise.

Alas, the ‘public option’ is the least likely to be one of those provisions that survives the final pass through the meat grinder. It’s sad, but the focus on the public option has only served to divert everybody’s attention from the real meat and potatoes parts that will really help a lot of Americans.

I still believe that a public option, or at the least - and extension of Medicare to people 55 years and up, would have been the best choice. That’s said only because I know Americans - when led by the Fox ‘guvmint is bad’ machine would have nothing approaching actual ‘universal coverage’.

Here’s the bottom line on the joint bills that we can look at in the coming weeks:

Cost: The $871 billion of the Senate bill is likely to trump the $1 trillion of the House version. That’s spread over the next decade, folks. If that seems too much to swallow, ask how much the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing - monthly, then you’ll think the cost of health care is a freaking bargain.

Public Option: The House public option is likely to fall to the Senate’s national insurance exchanges that will be administered by the Office of Personnel Management. They will oversee private insurance to insure - hopefully - that they are keeping costs under control and offering consumers a reasonable choice. They’ve already been doing this for years for the Congress and other agencies. So, for those teabaggers who declared we should have something at least as good as Congress, you’ve got your wish, now shut up.

Individual Mandate: Get over it, teabaggers. We have individual mandates all through our society. You have to have car insurance, just as you must have a drivers license, go to school, file an income tax return on and on. For those who recoil at the very idea of government insisting on individual mandates, go to Mexico and see how that works for you. Otherwise the penalties for defying the mandates are ranging between $95 and $750 dollars AFTER you’ve been given about two to three years to get a clue and make up your mind. Not terribly burdensome. File the individual mandate under Personal Responsibility, something the teabag set says they’re in support of unless it applies to them.

Employers/Help for Small Business: The Senate bill doesn’t require employers with less than 50 employees to provide insurance while the House bill says that those employers with payrolls under $500,000 don’t. But at the end of the day, there are all kinds of subsidies and ways to get to insured employees without bankrupting anybody. The thing won’t begin until about 2014, which should give everybody an ample opportunity to either slit their wrists or get a clue on how they might best handle it. So again, can you quit whining?

Financial Assistance: For everybody who is scared that they simply can’t afford the premiums, assistance will be offered for anybody making up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level - or $88K for a family of four. If that doesn’t describe you - and you’re making way less - then you’ll be covered under an expanded Medicaid program. Period. Stop whining.

New Taxes: This is the boogeyman that the United States Chamber of Commerce is peddling - the lying scoundrels - to scare that last uncertain person into setting their hair on fire and taking to the streets to sound the alarm.  Fact is, that you and I - since we’re making way less than $200,000 a year have nothing to worry about, and it’s the richest Americans that will get an increase in their Medicare witholding tax (1.45% to 2.35%- Whoa! The horror of it!). If Bill Gates isn’t whining …

Abortion: This one just scalds me. Health care reform should not be about abortion rights. The Supreme Court decided that via Roe v. Wade, but there are certain scurilous, dispreputable, lying assholes who would use this opportunity as a spoiler of despicable proportions. Abortion is legal in the United States. Why then should we care who pays for a legal medical procedure. But, if you’re one of the simple minded then relax. There are ‘firewalls’ built into the legislation that should allow you to crawl into your neolithic cave and sleep soundly.

Medicare Changes:  This could be a sticking point, but more for doctors than seniors. My family doc was here at a little holiday party last night, and bemoaning the cuts to Medicare providers. He says he will have to stop taking new Medicare patients if the cuts go through. First, I think this despair is a bit premature, since the proposed cuts take place over a period of ten years. Second, if history is any indicator, the cry from seniors will cause the politicians to think twice before they actually do it. Third, the bulk of the cuts will be directed toward the Advantage Plans - like my mother is on - and will do away with some of the niceties like free eyeglasses. I can’t see where it would affect Mr. Maven’s Medicare coverage in the least. But if docs do start putting out the No Vacancy sign to new patients with Medicare that would be bad. Congress does need to do something to prevent that from happening. The good news is that the doughnut hole seniors will finally get the prescription drug coverage they deserved all along.

As I said earlier, Sen. Reid did fight the good fight. He is looking out for the uninsured and underinsured in Nevada - despite what the teabaggers here in Northern Nevada would have everybody believe. I would have preferred him to have told guys like Ben Nelson ( the Mutual of Omaha representative from Nebraska) and Joe Liebermann ( the Hartford representative from Connecticutt) to fuck themselves, and go for the reconciliation vote.

But then that kind of thinking is why I’m not in politics, not to mention the majority leader of the senate.

Here’s what Reid had to say to Nevadans:

Dear Friends,

After a long fight, I am pleased to report that the Senate just passed the historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act this morning.  This bill will ensure all Nevadans will finally have access to quality, affordable health insurance.  Nevada has the second highest rate of uninsured in the nation, according to the Associated Press, and businesses are struggling with the costs of providing health care to their employees.  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will greatly improve Nevada’s health in the following ways:

• Three years of full funding for the Medicaid expansion;
• Affordable coverage to 518,000 Nevadans who are uninsured;
• Premium tax credits available to more than 300,000 Nevadans so they can purchase coverage;
• Tax credits to 24,000 small businesses in Nevada to make premiums more affordable for their employees;
• Lower premiums and prescription drug costs for Nevada’s 328,000 Medicare beneficiaries;
• Increased funding for community health centers;
• Increased medical residency slots, bringing more doctors to Nevada;
• And it will help relieve Nevada tax payers from the burden of paying for those who don’t have insurance.

The importance of this bill for Nevada can’t be overstated. This bill saves lives, saves money and saves Medicare for Nevadans.  More than 500,000 Nevadans will receive affordable coverage, and 24,000 small businesses are going to be able to make premiums more affordable for their employees.  No longer will insurance companies be able to discriminate because of preexisting conditions or gender, and they won’t be able to drop you when you get sick.  And that’s just the beginning. 

I applaud my Senate colleagues for supporting a bill that will mean so much for struggling families in Nevada and across the nation.

I encourage you to learn more about the benefits Nevada will receive as a result of this historical legislation by visiting the HealthReform.Gov Nevada webpage.  For more information on my work in the Senate or to contact me, please visit my website, reid.senate.gov.

I wish you and your family happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year.

Sincerely,

HARRY REID
U.S. Senator for Nevada

Mea Culpa, Senator.

Maven 

Comments

[ColinFromLasVegas]

Really enjoyed your post. Because it broke it all down to a nutshell. The TRUTH of everything. And not that teabagger, birther, deather, RepubliCRAP (or whatever right wingnutball view that is out there) that seems to innundate the airwaves and television screens.

Perhaps not all that was hoped for was done, but it looks like a good start. I just hope that later someone goes wholeheartedly after busting apart the anti-trust status of the health care insurance industries. This bill (or the consolidated one forthcoming the House and the Senate one) can be a building block to start to do that (along with other things) to get it going even better.

What amazes me though is where I live, we have the Las Vegas Review Journal; a news entity that's pretty much of the same vein as ClusterFox News network; in that it is definitely an arm of the GOoP bent on the total destruction of anything Democratic Party. They've already got statements from Senator Reid's opponents in the next election. And they all spout that RepubliCRAP Party line.

Ms. Sue Lowden (Nevada's version of Sarah Palin--"If you stand on your tiptoes and squint and shade your eyes, you can see Yucca Mountain from here....") has already blabbered about how we're spending like crazy, jobs, homelessness, unemployment, blah blah ad infinitum. The former beauty queen focuses on other stuff should be first, doing that deflection thing. In other words, the money part is more important. To hell with peoples' lives and the pursuit for happiness and health. The GOoPers are good at this warped logic.

Also, complaining about how other States got stuff and were bribed to get their vote. Well, wake up, Ms. Sue Lowden! This is politics. It's how things are done. The standard norm for doing things is not what we saw the last eight years before President Obama. The idea is to do politics the right way. Not invade countries, start wars to get what you want; or bully people to get what you want or even go so far as do criminal things and/or just lie about it and do it anyways. I'm so glad the Democrats are in power and are doing things the right way.

Well, anyways, enjoyed your post. You pretty much nailed it, Maven. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

[mavenandmeddler]

Thanks and you have a happy holiday as well