Affordable Care:
Beyond the Rhetoric
What a battle it was!
The rest of the world watched in fascinated confusion as we practically
ripped our country apart over health care reform. For a while it even looked like some states were going to
secede from the Union over Medicaid expansion. To paraphrase one international media correspondent – how
can the United States be in so much turmoil over a watered down version of
reforms that have been successfully practiced by the rest of the developed
world for over fifty years?
I think a lot of the confusion came from the fact that the
underlying issues at stake were mostly hidden from the public discussion. The real battle was over the role of
profit in health care and our ongoing struggles with the widening gap between
the haves and the have-nots in our nation. Now that some time has passed, maybe we can take a look at
some initial results of the reforms, beyond the rhetoric.
It seems that some of what we all desperately needed has
been achieved. Millions of families across the nation, mostly the 90%
have-nots, are now discovering that denial of coverage because of pre-existing
conditions is a thing of the past. We will not be dropped from insurance
companies because we are too sick. Our mothers will never have to pay more
again just because they are women. Our teenagers can stay on our insurance
until they get out of college.
Even better, the stridency of the media is finally lowering
its loudness. We see a little evidence that the bickering madness of our two
major political parties will subside a bit on this agenda. That would allow us to focus on
improving provisions of Obamacare to better meet the needs of all our citizens. For those who can afford it, there
continue to be lots of concierge medicine options. Now there are many more affordable private health insurance
options for middle class Americans.
What about those families not able to afford $100 - $150 a
month for a policy and for whom Medicaid expansion is not available? In my opinion, we still need another
option. It could be a catastrophic
insurance policy for lower-income citizens that would be financed by
public/private partnerships or a public, single payer option. In other countries they call this
public medicine. Right now, this
lack of a public option is the biggest limitation to effective health care in
our country. It leads to all sorts
of problems, including sporadic care that doesn’t include prevention (leading
to relapse and more expensive chronic conditions), overloading of hospital
emergency rooms, and dumping of ill, impoverished people onto our streets.
It’s time for common sense. Our government was intended by
its constitution to be one of the people, by the people, and for the
people. Pressure from citizens
across the nation has successfully pushed better provisions into the Affordable
Care Act, and that pressure has been bipartisan away from Washington. We can
continue. Implementation is having a real affect on our families’ health care
access even in Big Horn County. It happened because we worked together. Now we
can move together toward the better access, and the more reasonable restraints
on privileged profiteering a public option would bring. And it would bring our
government back down to its intended role in public policy for the good of all.
It’s time to get informed with the details. Ask in any
medical clinic in America for information on the Affordable Care Act. Look up
Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the Affordable Care Act on line. Insurance companies have additional
information, and are coming on board with new priorities in keeping with the
common good of our families. See Kaiser, Aetna or look up “health insurance
affordable care act.” It’s good to
see the rhetoric of disdain for people of another party quit rising. Maybe, just maybe, we can also stop the
still rising rift between the top one percent who now own more wealth in
American than ninety percent of the rest of us. That rift remains the biggest
threat to the good provisions of the Affordable Care Act. And it remains the
biggest reason the public option was killed by Baucus and Obama, with full
consent by Tea Partiers and Republicans.
The following links are only in my blog edition, for
anyone’s use:
Here is Kaiser’s Family Foundation poll on public approval
of the Affordable Care Act in total. It reflects a continued decline in
popularity across the county of Obamacare, fueling a potential total repeal
ideology. But it also indicates the saturation of anti-ACA (Obamacare) on our
media. Information in favor of Obamacare is nowhere near as available. But most
important, this site does not allude to any of the polls detailing popularity
of ACA legislative initiatives individually. So examine this with the proven
media-cultivated misperception of Obamacare most Americans have. http://kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-august-september-2014/
Here is another Kaiser poll indicating the opposite: in fact
Americans approve wholeheartedly what the ACA (Obamacare) actually does. But in
those polls that attempt to gauge the legislation itself, the words “Obamacare”
or “ACA” are omitted. So we need to decide. What is the real Obamacare? The one
conjured up by our media? Or what it really amounts to? Check this for what it
really amounts to: http://kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-august-september-2014/
And try this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/22/obamacares-most-popular-provisions-are-its-least-well-known/
or this:
This one, on Republicans, is self explanatory:
One American dies every 12 minutes because they lack health
care insurance. "For any doctor ... it's completely a no-brainer that
people who can't get health care are going to die more from the kinds of things
that health care is supposed to prevent," said Woolhandler, a professor of
medicine at Harvard and a primary care physician in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. See the article:
Legal attempts to dismantle Obamacare have been riddled with
cherry-picking. http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/07/can-squint-see-one-cherry-cornfield-must-cherry-tree
Why Obama care is winning
for dems...except for the fact that they are dems...always
apologizing for doing the right thing...always apologizing for moving the
nation along...always intimidated by Republicans (who seem to actually question
the legitimacy of the Democratic party itself).
