The fear of financial ruin upon receiving a dreaded medical diagnosis is as American as apple pie. This fact is shocking, and so is the so-called healthcare reform "debate" coming from Washington.
I've received a bunch of emails asking where I've been. I've been here reading, watching and in shock. Shock is not conducive to clear thinking.
So today I'll refocus on what is being lost as we watch the Senate Finance Committee discuss deficit reduction and broadly speaking, whether or not as a nation, we can afford healthcare for all Americans. This lays me low.
So I'm going to tell you about an American family I came across on CNN who don't have health insurance but are faced with a cancer diagnosis. I'm going to tell you about ordinary Americans.
Holy mother of God, what happens to someone, who receives such awful news and is uninsured? Actually this begs the question, because those of us paying extortionary rates for junk insurance, know that "being insured" is a guarantee of exactly nothing.
Before I introduce you to this American family, I need to point out, that almost to a person, all of these fine U.S. Senators are applauding the heroic work of Max Baucus with accolades like, "I've never seen anyone work so hard", well this should give you a sense about how totally out of touch this gang is with the struggles of ordinary America.
Where I come from, every one of these Senate sermons should begin with a plea for forgiveness. Those we elect to do our business have been so terribly derelict in their duties to address insurance industry atrocities for so long, they should be begging all Americans for our mercy. Imagine this, not since Theodore Roosevelt proposed universal health care during the 1912 presidential campaign has any such bill even come this far. It's about time! And here they are talking about deficit reduction and trying to keep the murderous thugs at AHIP at the table!
Meet Leslie Elder, she could be your sister, mother, aunt or best friend.
I suggest you click the link and read about Ms. Elder and allow the rage to percolate deep in every vein in your body. Then, turn on CSPAN for a few minutes and watch the Senate Finance Committee. The juxtaposition is surreal and yes, horrifying.
Leslie Elder's eyelids fluttered open, and through the fog of pain medication, she saw the emergency room doctors pull back the curtain in her room.
She could tell that the news was bad.
"They didn't have to say a word. I knew from their faces that something wasn't right," said Elder, 60, who hours earlier had stumbled into the ER with a stabbing pain in her abdomen. "Then one doctor said, 'Your right kidney ... it's breaking apart. You have a tumor ... and you also have a tumor in your left kidney.' "
The words "You have a tumor" were not new to Elder; her grim financial situation was.
Elder had cancer twice before -- in 1988, doctors found a tumor in her right breast, and in 2001, they found one in her left breast -- except back then, she was insured. By the time she learned that she had kidney cancer in September 2005, she was uninsured.
"All I could think of was 'Oh, my god, I'm going to go broke. We'll be living in a cardboard house,' " Elder said. " 'How am I going to do this?' It was the most honest feeling of powerlessness."
Here's Leslie in her own words--nuff said.
So where does all this leave us--you and me?
Well take a look at this interview with Jane Hamsher, because she is one of the very few who feels compelled to return the discussion to exactly where it belongs--healthcare is a basic human right. And by the way, this ideal is what we intend to champion on the new web site, PUBLIC OPTION PLEASE
At PUBLIC OPTION PLEASE, we'll be focusing on real Americans. We'll be the voice of Americans who just need healthcare and don't give a rat's ass about an insurance industry bought and paid for report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
We're searching for a few Americans who have been denied treatment though insured, and we'll champion them , much as we did with Nataline Sarkisyan. Within the next several days, we'll have a page on PUBLIC OPTION PLEASE where you'll be able to input your information, and we'll select several people on whose behalf we'll go to bat.
And I want to leave you with one final insidious piece of information, you need to be acutely aware of. It's known as the Silent Filibuster and it's bad, bad, bad.
A senator in the Democratic Caucus is conducting a silent filibuster -
threatening to join with Republicans to block a public option.
And Majority Leader Harry Reid is hiding them behind the Senate's closed
doors while watering down a public option.
At least one senator in the Democratic caucus is blocking a public option
but we don't know who. That's because Majority Leader Harry Reid is
protecting any senator who wants to join a Republican filibuster of health care reform.
This isn't just wrong, it's deeply immoral. If a Democrat wants to filibuster a public option, make them do it in public.
Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats can't suddenly start talking about their lack of "60 votes" without also saying that a "filibuster-proof majority" means that you don't allow members of the Caucus to join a Republican filibuster without paying a price.
Reid can't shift responsibility for that on to anyone. It's his decision,
and his decision alone to force to filibuster before he waters down a strong public option because of private threats they won't publicly acknowledge.
For years, we've been told we couldn't pass bills because we needed a
majority in the Senate. After we got a majority, we were told we needed 60 votes to pass progressive legislation. Well, now we have 60 votes. It's time to use them.
Harry Reid can no longer allow members of the Democratic caucus to block a public option behind the closed doors of the Senate.
We'll have more on the Silent Filibuster in the days ahead.