I have been an ardent foe of the no-public-option-with-mandate Senate Health Bill. I just couldn't convince myself that it was worth supporting. And the dishonesty that has been emanating from the Whitehouse on almost everything this entire year, hadn't helped either.
But in the last couple days I have changed my mind. Please follow me over the fold on why I think you should too
Reason #10 Because AL Franken the great senator from Minnesota says we should. As does the great John Kerry. Look, if you cant figure this one out, why worry your little head when we you can depend on Democratic Senators to tell you what's best. We all know how hard they have fought for us. They held their own against the Bush administration AND the republican congress. They battled it out for the little guy on HCR, never compromising principle for expediency of for corporate favors. Really, if this is too hard for you to figure out, there no better reason this!
Reason #9 Because 31 million Americans will now get health care insurance. never mind that they will be forced to buy it from private insurers. After all, if they cant pay the high rates, the government will step in and make sure the insurers get their money and keep those folks covered by using our tax dollars. They ARE going to look out for the poor folk, so don't you worry. Plus if people cant afford a proper plan they can just get by purchasing a skeletal plan which we know will have low deductibles, quick approval for procedures, and no discrimination on payouts.
Reason #8 Because if we don't, 45,000 Americans will die every year. With this HCR bill we will only let 200,000+ die, since the health care bill will kick-in in 2014. That's a sacrifice that those 200k people will have to make for the sake of allowing the health insurance industry have 4 years to figure out how best to game the system by the time it comes fully on line.
Reason #7 Because this bill will reduce costs. Insurance companies are required to make sure that 85% of their income is used for medical costs. I know this is a smaller percentage than the fully functional Federal programs like Medicare and the Vet. But there are a lot of really smart executives that run these insurance companies that will have to be given large salaries and retention bonuses, so they can work their special talents making sure our health insurance costs are smaller every year. This will also be really easy to enforce, and we can be pretty sure the insurance companies are no going to try to bend the rules.
Reason #6 There is some really strong regulatory reform in this bill. Yeah, so they left out the simplest one, namely taking away the anti-trust exemption. But look. These are big corporate entities, just like Wall street. Jobs depend on them. We cant just regulate them willy nilly. Plus you've probably seen how well the White House has brought the Banks to their knees with new regulations, and also, how we've now attained the much promised transparency of the Fed and the bailout. I'm sure the insurance regulations are going to work out the same way. I'm sure we'll get a health Czar like Geithner, who toils day and night trying to make the functioning of the fed more transparent. And someone like Bernake who will make sure that the regulations are enforced. It might get a little worse under the republicans but not much, because remember Geithner and Benake were actually also working under the republican administration. SO we shouldn't worry too much, because both the dems and repubs are usually pretty close on this kind of stuff.
Reason #5 We'll be giving a bone to the republicans with the Nelson/Stupak amendments on abortion, which means the republicans will be quite grateful and prevent future deadlocks, which is good for future legislation give and take. Plus, if you are a person who was dead against this bill because you're a god fearing republican, this might give you a reason to reconsider. I know its a bummer that this is going to affect a lot of poor teenage girls. But look, sometime we need to compromise. Plus the family of low income teenage girls have the option to buy into a special plan that also covers abortion for an extra cost (in some states). We all know that abortions are usually planned, and there's no stigma attached, so I think we can be fairly certain those affected will make sure to buy the right coverage. Plus families with only teenage boys will not be affected by this, so that's nearly half the population right there.
Reason #4 This whole thing is being done with no new taxes. Theres a small excise duty on rich folk (they deserve it--I mean that), and also a sorta-kinda tax on Cadillac plans. The latter is also probably a good thing anyway, because now corporations will slowly reduce the quality of the plans, for example for union workers, which means we'll all benefit because things will be cheaper to buy. But the real beauty of this is that the people who don't have insurance now will get insurance without a single cent rise in tax. All they have to do is start paying the private insurers for their health benefit! And if they don't they'll just have a fine of 75-100 / month (which we all know is chump change to everyone in America, and if anyones tax bill went up by that much they wouldnt notice anyway). So no taxes, but full coverage! And you're still not on board??!!
Reason #3 You cant have a perfect bill, and this one is a close as its going to get. Sometimes you just have to give up on principle. Thats reality. But given all that, you have to acknowledge that we have managed to make a lot of people happy. This bill has tried really hard to accommodate everyone, the health industry, the republicans, Joe Lieberman, Rahm Emmanuel, Ben Nelson, The Pharmaceitical industry...I think that's everyone right? I mean despite the hurdles, this bill manages to keep everyone happy, thats a HUGE accomplishment, and it should be supported just for all the hard work by the senate and whitehouse in getting us here.
Reason #2 This bill is just a start. It will only get better! Plus remember how we forced farm worker to pay into social security without getting the benefit? ANd now things are better. That was a clear case of forcing people to pay a significant portion of their earning into a privately managed enterprise, and see how ell its turned out now? Remember Nafta? That got a lot better with time too. So did Clinton's deregulation of Media and Banking. Democrats always pass laws that only get better over time. Remember the bankruptcy/credit bill championed by Biden. Boy, they couldnt have passed that at a better time!
So its clear that this bill will only get better, especially when it welds together through law the private citizens existence and the private corporation.
Reason #1 President Obama. Look we really have to have his back. He really needs this one. The only thing more important that whether this is the RIGHT health care bill, is that we dont allow the repubicans to demoralize our president. After all he's stuck by us through every single issue this past year. From The banking bailout, to Afganistan, torture, LGBT, etc. etc. If theres one reason to support this EVEN IF you think this is the worst possible HCR bill, is to do it for the sake of the president. He's really been cool through this, staying above the fray, not showing his cards, playing a poker face. He's really been in this to win this! AT ALL COSTS! Nows the time to deliver him the straight flush, four of a kind what have you. He deserves it. He's OUR president! Go on, give him the Christmas present he deserves!