It appears that we may not have a health care bill passed before Christmas. The bill under consideration now is a bad bill, written by the likes of Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and Mary Landrieu, whose main concern appears to be cost containment. My start position is to have universal health care coverage and work from there how to achieve the goal in a way that the country can afford.
The long discussion thread to this post, demonstrates the great divisions in our country as to which priorities are important in passing a health care reform bill.
This morning's Lectionary reading from Zechariah is a timely reminder, at least to me, of what we should be about in passing health care reform.
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgements, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear.
Zechariah 7: 9-11
V. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten;
ReplyDeleteR. Nor the hope of the poor be taken away.
BCP, Morning Prayer II, Suffrages A
What a coinsidence... that's the signature to my e-mails too.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't "cost containment" in terminology we consider normal. It is how much the medical/insurance/pharma industry is willing to contain their own costs, not ours.
ReplyDeleteIt may be that Congress will as a result of its debates stumble onto a good idea or two. That is what the founders hoped would happen.
ReplyDeleteWho knows, it could happen. If not, well we have a new Congress coming in a year and we have waited this long.
FWIW
jimB
Hillbilly, thank you for your excellent contributions to the discussion on the thread.
ReplyDeletePiskie, you are so right. What reduction in the percentage of their huge profits will the health insurance industry find acceptable? My guess? Zero.
And I keep getting called "self-righteous" for arguing that everyone ought to have healthcare.
ReplyDeleteOrwell was a visionary...it just took us 25 years longer than he predicted to get to 1984.
I only wish it would have sunk in... Health reform is badly needed in this country, and our "fearless leaders" keep whizzing it away every time it comes up.
ReplyDeleteI am covered under the VA and my family is covered under the Federal Employees insurance, so I am in an ok position for healthcare. Most people can't say that, and I don't think that's right. Basic healthcare is a human right, not a political bargaining tool or a commodity to be traded.
Doxy, thank you, too, for your contributions to the other thread, which, by the way, continues with Jim, Doxy, and me.
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats will pay the price in the mid-term elections. I don't rejoice in that likelihood, but I believe it to be true. We didn't elect them to be barely better than Bush and the Republican Congress.
And yes. Health care is a RIGHT, or should be in the land of "justice for all".
David Brooks: The nays have it:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/opinion/18brooks.html?_r=1
Jim, if you knew what little respect I have for the writing of David Brooks, you might have saved yourself the trouble of the link. I read his article. I'm not impressed. I never am. Spare me more links to David Brooks - please!
ReplyDelete