It's all business as usual starting tomorrow in D.C.
The debate is expected to last at least several weeks. Democrats would like to pass a bill by Christmas, but have yet to find a formula that can win 60 votes, the number required to conclude debate.
Complicating the situation, lawmakers from both parties are planning to introduce dozens of amendments, addressing issues from a government-run health-care plan to medical malpractice lawsuits to abortion and taxes. The aim isn't just to shape the bill but also to make political points....
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), for example, is expected to offer an amendment to insert tough abortion restrictions in the bill, mirroring language in the bill that narrowly passed the House Nov. 7. Republicans are also likely to offer at least one amendment limiting medical malpractice lawsuits....
"This is a real opportunity for Republicans to do 'message" amendments," said Kevin Kayes, who worked on Capitol Hill for 23 years, including as a top aide to Mr. Reid. "More important for Democrats is to get the bill to a place where 60 members will vote for it. They will be judged by whether they get this done or not."
Meanwhile, life still goes on in fear an uncertainty, for the millions of uninsured, as many as 45,000 a year, 123 a day, die because they lack access to care. One of the millions of the uninsured, one who is staring death in the face, is Tony Andrade.
In many ways, [Tony] Andrade, 47, is the Everyman of President Barack Obama's push for overhauling the country's health care system: working, but for low wages, without health benefits – in the company of 37 million employed Americans who are uninsured....
It begins on a summer morning, when Andrade makes a troubling discovery: drops of blood in his urine. The day ends with scribbles on the back of an envelope, a slapdash diary that will form a jumbled collage of his state of mind.
June 17 – "Diagnosed with tumor. Cancerous. Had to tell mom and kids. Scared, feeling real uneasy. ... Lucky I went right away."
....
Like many of this state's 7 million uninsured, Andrade earns too much to qualify for Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid, but too little to buy insurance on his own. His pre-existing health problems, such as diabetes, inflate the premiums he'd pay for private insurance, if he could even get coverage.....
Returning to the hospital on June 29, Andrade had assumed his insurance status wouldn't be an obstacle since the referral for surgery came through the emergency room. Instead, the Kaiser doctor informs Andrade his surgery is being canceled.
Andrade begins to sweat. He leaves despondent and demeaned. There is nothing more he can say.
"I thought doctors were supposed to help you," he says later. "I've got this tumor inside me that needs to come out, that this doctor told me needs to come out, and he's turning me away."
....
Andrade's $11.50-an-hour job makes him too wealthy for Medi-Cal – a safety net for the poorest of the poor. But Sacramento County, like all California counties, has a special program to provide for some of those not eligible for Medi-Cal: CMISP, the County Medically Indigent Services Program....
The county will pay Andrade's future medical bills. It will give him access to doctors who can help him control his diabetes, obesity and other health problems. And it will refer him to the specialists he needs to deal with his cancer....
Andrade's tumor is out but at a post-op appointment, he finds out he needs more surgery. The cancer has spread to surrounding tissue....
Andrade's tumor is out but at a post-op appointment, he finds out he needs more surgery. The cancer has spread to surrounding tissue.
Orrin Hatch doesn't give a shit about the Tony Andrades of the nation, too few in Washington do. If the horror stories of the uninsured told over the past year haven't managed to sink in, haven't managed to convince those who have the power, the responsibility to fix this to give up the politics and just fix it, then nothing will.