So for Blue Dog Congressman Christopher Carney, it all comes down "to the insurance companies themselves."
"Let's see what the insurance companies do."
What do you think Kossacks?
Wanna give them another shot to do the right thing? Then, maybe, if they don't, well, then maybe we'll have to pull the public option thing on them.
I think that's what Rep. Carney said last night if I followed it right.
But first, let's start with the basics: why reform healthcare...and why support the President at all - for anything?
I felt good being back in the grass again, as I stuck HEALTHCARE FOR AMERICA NOW stickers on my little boy before walking into a Congressman Chris Carney's(PA 10th District Blue Dog) townhall held in a primarily Democratic area of Lackawanna County. My little boy and I had canvassed nearly every house in this small community, so it was nice to come back and take a seat in the firehall where we would prepare to ask Rep. Carney to support the public option.
It was kind of ironic seeing the HEALTHCARE FOR AMERICA NOW stickers on the front of his shirt, since just a few days ago I had received an email reply from Rep. Carney, who patted himself on the back for stalling healthcare reform:
August 22, 2009
Thank you for your message regarding health insurance reform. Hearing from the people of northeast and central Pennsylvania is an integral part of my job in Congress and I appreciate you taking the time to contact me.
Legislators from both political parties and the vast majority of Americans believe that some sort of health reform is needed. The real debate is focused on how best to improve the system. I was one of the Blue Dog Democrats who worked to slow the process down to provide the American people with enough time to be heard and to provide Congress with the time to get the job done right. Getting it done right means that everyone who wants to keep their current doctor and insurance can, that people with preexisting conditions are not discriminated against, and that the plan doesn't add to the deficit.
That being said, the rising cost of our current health care system is unsustainable for working families and small businesses. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research Educational Trust, from 2000 to 2007, premiums increased by 98 percent while wages only increased by 23 percent. Increasing health care costs also threaten our nation's ability to compete in the global economy. In the past ten years, the cost of health insurance to businesses has increased 140 percent. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that spending on health care and related activities will total $2.6 trillion in 2009 - 17 percent of our gross domestic product. Finally, forty-six million Americans are completely without health insurance, including over one million people from Pennsylvania.
As you know, the House of Representatives is currently considering health reform legislation, H.R. 3200, the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. In late July, the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor considered and passed differing version of H.R. 3200. These must be reconciled before the full House of Representatives can consider this legislation. A vote on passage in the House may take place this fall, but I will continue to fight to ensure that the process is not rushed by artificial deadlines.
The Senate is also working on comprehensive health reform legislation. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee already passed a bill, but the Senate Finance Committee has yet to complete its version.
I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind as Congress considers H.R. 3200 and health reform legislation. Thank you again for contacting me and please keep in touch.
Sincerely,
Christopher P. Carney
Member of Congress
It left me wondering just what kind of deadline he is talking about - aren't all deadlines man-made and therefore 'artificial'? And given the fact that I am one of those people who is desperate for healthcare reform - to at least bring down the cost of insurance to a level I can afford - shouldn't there be an urgency for reform rather than a slowing of the process?
We took our seats and and it seemed that all around us were people from Rep. Paul Kanjorski's district, who complained loudly that he had not held a town hall of his own, so they came to Rep. Carney's.
(Heck, I thought, if the Clean Coal Campaign forgers can't tell them apart, why not?)
So there we found ourselves inside the firehall, surrounded by dining room tables. One had a copy of "the bill" that had been examined by big, smart attorneys he said, and it shows there are indeed, death panels. He kept holding up some page of type, but wouldn't read from it.
I asked him who the attorneys were. He bumbled out something, but I couldn't understand it and he put his pages away and started reading the little booklet of the Constitution that Carney's aides distributed at sign in.
Another gentleman sat in his BMW baseball hat, talking big and loud about how he couldn't trust the government to run healthcare correctly. How the government will screw it up; how the government can't be trusted. And yea, he said, there are death panels too. He knows it for a fact because he has worked for 30 years as a nurse at a local state hospital for the mentally ill.
State hospital? I asked.
Yep. Thirty years, he answered, puffing out his chest and resetting his hat.
My head tilted the way my dog's did when we left him at the vet for an overnight stay.
So for 30 years you have trusted the government with not only your healthcare, but your entire livelihood, I pointed out.
No, he argued, the union paid for my healthcare with my dues and it still does, now that I'm retired...
Okay, sure it does buddy.
Then I heard some shouts from the audience and at least one speaker called on Rep. Carney NOT to pass any reform if it wouldn't be worthy of his own family.
WTF? Wasn't that what President Obama proposed a year ago? Heck, that's why I worked on the campaign, to get the same healthcare as members of Congress.
Like I said, dining room tables.
But I was there to ask a question I never did get to ask, so maybe I'll post it here and Rep. Carney might answer it for me:
As a single parent trying to raise a child who will become a good, responsible citizen, I sometimes have to choose between paying for healthy food for my child, paying my utility bills, my mortgage or my healthcare. My part-time jobs do not provide me with any healthcare, but those part-time jobs allow me to be with my child, to ensure he has at least one parent with him who can guide him as he grows up.
Mr. Carney, if the vote was held today, would you support a public option to ensure competition with insurance companies so I no longer have to choose between food and shelter for me and my child and healthcare.
Or better yet -
Mr. Carney, can I have the same healthcare that I provide for you?
I didn't get an answer, although it seems several people asked the same question, including a reporter for The Scranton Times-Tribune
DICKSON CITY - A deeply divided town-hall-meeting crowd of more than 300 people fired comments and questions Monday at U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, who said afterward the presence of a public health insurance option won't be the decisive factor in his vote on health care reform.
Rather, Mr. Carney said, he wants a bill that ensures insurance companies must cover pre-existing conditions and allows people to take their health care coverage with them if they change jobs, a concept known as transportability.
"A public option is something that may get us what we really want," he said.
But what disturbed me most was that while Rep. Carney would not commit to the Public Option, he kept misrepresenting what I wanted. Again and again he said that what "WE" really want is for people not to be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions and what WE want is 'transportability.'
No, Mr. Carney, you are wrong and you do not speak for me.
You forgot me Mr. Carney. You forgot me. You know, the one who can't afford to buy health insurance on my own? The one who has to decide between food and health insurance?
What about those of us who have no safety net? Who live each day tettering on the brink of disaster? You forgot that YOU REPRESENT ME TOO.
How do you ignore me, Mr. Carney? How do you say again and again...
Let's see what the insurance companies do
There are more politically savvy Kossacks here than me. Take a listen to what he said. If he's saying something different than I'm hearing, please let me know.
Not sure I understand the Blue Dog Code. Wish to hell I did, since this is kinda important to me.
Sigh.
On the bright side, our group is planning a day-long public reading of
HR 3200 and my little boy was asked by the organizers to read a section about the Public Option.
"Will it help get you healthcare?" he asked me last night, as he thought about how a nine-year-old might feel reading words he might not understand in front of an audience.
I said I hoped it would help me get healthcare, and healthcare for many other people who need it.
"Then I'll do it," he said.
I'm pretty darn proud of this kid. We're getting the section in advance so he can practice.