Everybody who cares about the effort for Health Care Reform should read this one.
Harry Reid, and What Happened to the Public Option | Robert Reich’s Blog
First there was Medicare for all 300 million of us. But that was a non-starter because private insurers and Big Pharma wouldn’t hear of it, and Republicans and "centrists" thought it was too much like what they have up in Canada — which, by the way, cost Canadians only 10 percent of their GDP and covers every Canadian. (Our current system of private for-profit insurers costs 16 percent of GDP and leaves out 45 million people.)
This is a simple, fast read that clearly elucidates what’s happening to the public option and its likely fates. Which are deeply frustrating and troubling. Being that I’m honestly worried that a bad health-care reform effort may be too expensive a blunder for America’s stuttering economy to withstand, I wish I could do more. I can–and do–communicate with Congresspeople, my own and others; but fundamentally I feel that I can’t communicate as, um, loudly as the major corporate lobbying groups in question, who seem to have the ear of the majority of Reps and Senators regardless of which party is technically in power. What puts the pressure back on politicians to answer to the people? Surely not legislation that forces them to, because that would be ludicrous, right? Violence? I can’t stomach the stuff, and don’t see a reason to want to learn how. Boycotting maybe? Boycotting what, though? Withholding tax money hurts citizens, by impacting schools and other programs they need; it doesn’t cut a Senator’s salary any.
Okay. Rather than have no ideas, I’ll say that my idea is that We, The People should pool our dough and hire some really super good hackers to make the lives of our Congresspeople hell until they relent and pass a real public option, a "Kennedy bill" as some are calling it.
Of course my idea kind of sucks, so I’d love to hear yours. :P
4 comments
When I think about how a rather small minority of rightwingers are basically holding American progress hostage these days, I just want to punch somebody. (Will be googling on “Glenn Beck / Sarah Palin blow-up doll” after I’m done writing this).
That said, there IS some truth to the Republican objection to new entitlement programs: they inevitably grow. And in that, there’s actually hope that healthcare entitlements WILL grow, from what Robert Reich considers negligible up to something like the levels found in other advanced industrial democracies.
Legislation can always be fixed, after the voter has tasted the fruit, and found that it’s not poison, and asks legislators for more. If you look at who was originally covered by Social Security, for example, you’d be shocked at how miserly it seems by today’s standards. Those improvements happened because they were popular. But first they had to be made acceptable in the first place, and that required an absurd degree of compromise.
I certainly support pressure for more and better health care reform, but for now, put me down for whatever will make it pass, and soon.
Michael: I think I agree, overall — let’s get something going, so that we can make it a better something, because without SOMETHING we’re doomed.
Though when I first read about that blow-up doll, I was really worried. Then I realized you meant “so you could punch it”. ;)
I hope you guys do end up with a proper healthcare system. The corporatocracy a.k.a. Corporate Communists have too much power over the American public.
Breaking some of it away the better for everyone.
HELL YES. Thanks, nemogbr!
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