The Full story of Health Care reform

I have frequently blogged about how incomplete and flawed the new health care reform is. It far from anything that will provide truly first class care to a high number of Americans. But It is good to have the whole story documented in one place.

Such documentation is now ready to hand.

Tonight's episode of Frontline offers a pretty clear presentation of just what the new health care reform laws are and how the Obama White House got them passed.

Despite the neutrality of the program, the facts make clear how flawed this "reform" is and how much corruption, betrayal, and backroom deals with special interest poisoned the process.

I post the link to the video here:

Frontline: Obama's Deal (April 13, 2010)

Senate Bill retains Public Option!

The Public Option will be in the Senate Bill! The compromise? States can choose to back out. So that means that you Rick Perry and you Bobby Jindal will be the ones who get to choose to harm the people of your states and sell them out to your insurance company overlords!! Ha!!!! In more sane states, we will finally have some relief from corporate villains who have been denying our claims!

Harry Reid announces the decision:



I think this is a reasonable move. Let states who fear "big government" refuse the option if they wish. They will quickly learn that they need and want a public option after all. In a couple years, the states that have a public option will being do much better with coverage and costs than those who refuse it.

To be honest, however, and despite the tea-baggers, I don't think may States will refuse the public option.

Robert Reich calls for action

In this brief video, Robert Reich explains the public option and why he believes it is essential to real reform. He ends with a call for action.



Please act everyone! Call, write, tweet, and email your representatives. March, rally, spread information! Do everything you can!!! This is a chance for something real in health care reform we cannot let it slip away.

Faith and Health Care reform

A while back I wrote a blog post in which I asked my readers to imagine how Jesus would have treated people who came to him to be cured if he operated like a Health Insurance Company (See "If Jesus were a Health Insurance CEO." I think that the question of religious faith and universal health care is an important one.

On that note, I am going to refer the reader to two pieces from the Washington Post "On Faith Panel"

First, Jim Wallis explains the rules for Health Care found in Leviticus, the basic idea was that everyone in Israel must have health care whether they could afford it or not.

See Wallis' piece here

Second, Aana Marie Vigen argues that anyone who follows Jesus is committed to making sure that all people have access to health care. In other words, Health care is a right. Furthermore, Vigen argues that a strong public option is the best way currently under discussion to ensure the christian duty to provide affordable and universal coverage.

See Vigen's piece here

I confess that I cannot understand how anyone could claim to be a follower of Jesus and think it is acceptable to live in a world where anyone is denied care, or even in a world where people regularly fall into debt and go bankrupt because of their medical bills. This seems utterly wrong for those who follow a man who preached "good news to the poor" and spent all his time healing the sick (without asking for a premium by the way).

As for the public option? A public option is a proposal that if passed would simply be a government funded insurance option that would force private insurance companies to provide better coverage at lower costs. The CBO estimates that no more than 12 million people would enroll in said public option. The bills that include have crafted in a way that it can't have an unfair advantage over private plans, and public plans work well in other countries and even in our own (Medicare) without any of the horrors that its opponents fear. Nor is it too expensive, simply reversing the Bush tax cuts, or cutting unnecessary subsidies by medicare to private insurance companies, or curbing unnecessary military spending, or not invading another country like Iraq, would provide far more than enough money to pay for the change. All a public plan will do is cut costs, and improve quality of care.

And people who follow the healer from Nazareth oppose this?!

The United Methodist Church supports a strong Public Option

From the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church:

ACHIEVING HEALTH CARE REFORM

In the United States, 45.7 million people were uninsured according to the U.S. Census report in 2008. However, a closer look at more recent data points to a much larger figure, 1 in 3 Americans or 86.7 million people who were uninsured at some point in the last 3 years. Yet, the United States has lacked significant health reform since Medicare and Medicaid were adopted in 1964. To address the growing crisis in health care which affects every American through inadequate or declining health care coverage, major gaps in the health care system which lead to life-threatening and costly mistakes, and spiraling costs-- a major contributor to the economic instability of individuals, families and U.S. businesses. Congress has an opportunity to address the the crisis in health care and the gross inequities caused by a profit-driven health care system. We call upon them to make enacting health care reform a top priority now.

The faith community has a particularly important role to play in this conversation because our concern is for the entirety of God’s creation. As United Methodists, we believe health care is a right. We have learned that when lives are at stake we cannot and must not walk away from the dialogue until every person has access to needed health care. That's where voices of faith are so very important to major reform in the U.S. and across the globe.

Achieving comprehensive health reform in the U.S. illustrates that our priorities are firmly fixed on the welfare of all of humanity and rejects the notion that health care is a commodity available only to those who can afford it. We call upon Members of Congress to consider the common good for the entirety of people in the U.S. and enact health care reform that covers everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Thus, a public option is essential to covering those who are unable to pay for health insurance. “Like police and fire protection, health care is best funded through the government’s ability to tax each person equitably and directly fund the provider entities.” (United Methodist Social Principle 162V)

I have never been more proud to call myself a United Methodist.