Our elected officials in Washington are currently scrambling to pass Obama's health care reform legislation before the Christmas holiday. This should be cause for celebration, and for some, it is--namely, the health care and insurance industries. For people like ourselves, however, it is nothing to cheer about.
Gone from the bill are most of the reforms that would have made this legislation truly historic. In place of these are giveaways to special interest groups like health care companies who, according to the latest issue of Harper's, spent $1.5 million per day lobbying Congress in 2009. The insurance industry, thanks to Sen. Ben Nelson, is another winner, with their exemption from anti-trust laws still intact. Holdouts like Nelson and Joe Leiberman can now be counted on to vote for this law, but at what cost?
Howard Dean, politician and physician, pointed out that the current bill is no friend to American taxpayers. Calling it "an insurance company's dream", he noted that not only will everyone be required to buy health insurance or face fines, but that insurance carriers will retain the right to deny those with pre-existing conditions. The White House, through spokesman Robert Gibbs, denied that insurance companies came out on top, saying that they "spent hundreds of millions...lobbying against this legislation". Just goes to show what that amount of money can buy.
The lack of a public option, combined with a requirement to buy insurance or face penalties, makes this legislation a losing proposition for the American public. We may wind up with a system that is actually worse than what we started out to reform. I don't know about you, but this is not the kind of change I bargained for when I voted for Barak Obama last November.
Gone from the bill are most of the reforms that would have made this legislation truly historic. In place of these are giveaways to special interest groups like health care companies who, according to the latest issue of Harper's, spent $1.5 million per day lobbying Congress in 2009. The insurance industry, thanks to Sen. Ben Nelson, is another winner, with their exemption from anti-trust laws still intact. Holdouts like Nelson and Joe Leiberman can now be counted on to vote for this law, but at what cost?
Howard Dean, politician and physician, pointed out that the current bill is no friend to American taxpayers. Calling it "an insurance company's dream", he noted that not only will everyone be required to buy health insurance or face fines, but that insurance carriers will retain the right to deny those with pre-existing conditions. The White House, through spokesman Robert Gibbs, denied that insurance companies came out on top, saying that they "spent hundreds of millions...lobbying against this legislation". Just goes to show what that amount of money can buy.
The lack of a public option, combined with a requirement to buy insurance or face penalties, makes this legislation a losing proposition for the American public. We may wind up with a system that is actually worse than what we started out to reform. I don't know about you, but this is not the kind of change I bargained for when I voted for Barak Obama last November.
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