I want Democratic Senators and Congressmen to read this. I hope posting it on this site will help.
I've always been pretty good at reading how politics is moving. I can't predict things like terrorist attacks or election rigging, but as far as reading the general mood of our society, well, I read. I read a lot. And I live in the thick of things along with everyone else who works for a living. And I think things through. And I'm usually right.
So I'm just giving Democrats a warning here that ought to be obvious to them: if they don't fix Healthcare NOW, this year, this election cycle, there won't be much of a party left for 2012. You can kiss the majority you've worked so hard to build up goodbye.
Follow me over the fold for why.
I predicted that Bush would be a disaster. I predicted that 2006 would be a humiliation for Republicans. And I knew we were going to have a Democratic President in 2008 because there was no way to rig an election around a popular groundswell of disgust as deep as the one that was evidenced in the previous two elections. So I'm telling you guys: I tend to bat with a pretty high average. Let's start with the premises:
Healthcare is broken. The United States has the 37th best healthcare system in the world. That's not just sub-par, it's embarrassing. So before agonizing over what damage we'll do to the system as it is, just remember, behind us are nations that essentially have no system of healthcare. American healthcare just plain sucks. There is no avoiding it. We're two steps ahead of Cuba for crying out loud.
Democratic Senators and Congressmen are taking money from Insurance companies. Don't try to hide it. Don't try to pretend it doesn't influence your vote. It's obvious it does. We all can see it. Americans are readily distracted most of the time but we're not stupid. The facts are in front of us and we know what's happening so just accept that and quit trying to be civilized about the debate. You people are on the take. We get it. It's part of how Congress works.
There is no point quibbling about how many people are uninsured or where they come from or what options they have. It's relevant but it sure as hell is not the only thing that's wrong. You need to remember that even those who are insured aren't getting the care they need. We avoid the doctor because we can't afford the co-pay. We skip taking medications to avoid the cost of the co-pay, to make the most of the supply we have. We spend months being shuffled around from test to test because our doctors are incentivized to test us all over the place for the wrong thing before bothering to treat us. We wait until we're too sick to be treated in time because treatment costs more than we can afford, and we turn up in the ER because we finally can't take it anymore and we're about to die. And when we do make a claim on our insurance we are punished for using the system by higher rates or being kicked off the rolls entirely.
There is no point in rehashing the nonsense about how people can get free healthcare in the ER, or how we could get on public assistance if we wanted it. The problems that are causing the most trouble in this nation are long-term diseases like diabetes, and end-of-life care that goes out of its way to drain the pockets of panicky families by offering false hopes and unsustainable support schemes.
This is the wealthiest nation on the planet. We do not live in the 1800's.
- Do not give us a bunch of frontier individualism hooey. People in those times died young and in grotesque fashions. The simple fact is that healthcare you can't afford is healthcare you can't have.
- Don't give us nonsense about rationing. It's already rationed. The economics of our healthcare system means that we ration ourselves before the insurance company even gets around to rationing us.
- Don't give us this crap about The Government standing between us and our doctor. The Insurance Industry already stands there, and they are callus, immoral bastards who are killing us for profits every day.
The adherence to these out-moded arguments is entirely due to the influence you're getting from the insurance industry. Don't think we can't tell. Don't pretend we're going to be civilized about it. I curse the insurance industry every day and wish them a short, squalid, and unhappy existence. And for those of you on the take from them, I wish the same. You disgust me.
I voted Democratic in November with one goal in mind, the same goal I've had for the last 8 years: fix American Healthcare. Fix it NOW.
There are no excuses at this point. Democrats completely control the government. 70% of the public wants healthcare to be fixed. Our economy is in desperate need of a restructuring and healthcare is one of the areas in which we could see an immediate improvement. Imagine taking the burden of $1500 monthly insurance payments off the backs of those who are currently employed, and allowing those who are unemployed to stop worrying about maintenance of a painful condition to stop worrying, and get on with living their lives. Imagine if people could start a business without worrying about how to attract high-value workers because they can't afford health insurance.
Each fall, those of us who remain on employer-sponsored insurance go through the enrollment period for our benefits. Right after that, every other year, we go to the polls. If I find myself standing at the polls with a gaping hole in my wallet from my insurance payments in 2010, I'm going to speak my mind. Every American is going to speak his or her mind.
This is our best shot. I believe if healthcare reform, meaningful as in a public option that starts NOW and forces drug companies to bargain with the government for lower prices, and gives us all the option to have a plan that does not bankrupt us or try to kill us by rationing our care for the sake of profit, does not happen between now and November of 2010, it probably won't.
I worked hard for what I have. I contributed enthusiastically to a Democratic majority to preserve what I have. If I don't get a return on that, I'm done.
So Democrats in the Senate and House, I want you to evaluate how it's going to go down. We know that healthcare is broken. We know that fixing it requires making it more affordable and that the insurance industry can't be a part of that conversation because they are parasites. We know that your pockets are lined with health insurance company dollars. But if you don't do something this year, your base is going to evaporate. We're going to swirl away in the wind like so much smoke. Some of us are going to leave the country. Some of us are just going to stay home on election day, depressed as all hell. And your voting bloc will be reduced to low-information voters who as you bloody well know, tend Republican.
Your base is not composed of wealthy, well-to-do keyboard commandos who, if they lose an election, have the same kind of disappointment a sports fan does when his team takes a dive. We are not so rich that the outcome of an election doesn't really make a difference to how well we live. We are the people who make this country GO. We cook your food, change your sheets, watch your children, and guard you while you sleep. We are Regular Folk. If conditions in this country don't start changing SOON, we are going to start getting awfully pissed off.
Your choice is in front of you now, and it is, as I have previously diaried, Hobson's Choice. It is ONE OPTION and ONE OPTION ONLY. And the offer expires in November of 2010.
So my advice is this: tell the Blue Cross lobbyist in your office to go away. Tell them to get their filthy hands off the healthcare bills you're working on. Think for one moment about what your constituents actually are going to experience when you're done doing what you're doing.
Or there's going to be hell to pay.