Finally done

Health insurance reform legislation passed in the Senate today after more than a year of wrangling between progressive and corporate Democrats, and an all-out effort among Republicans to derail it. The Teabaggers and other right-wingers throughout the country reacted with their usual grace and sophistication: racist and homophobic slurs, vandalism, threats, envelopes of white powder in the mail and other charming instances of the spittle-flecked, purple-faced rage that spills over whenever a small, long-overdue step towards social justice is achieved.

The ignorance and incoherence of the Right was in full flower during the past year, what with cries of "keep government hands off my medicare," attacks on medical patients and children, and the comparison of Obama to Hitler in the apparent belief that attempting to solve the healthcare crisis is equivalent to exterminating millions of people.

The spectacle was similar to school integration in the 60's when the desire of dark-skinned children to have a better educations was a crime worthy of capital punishment by vigilante mobs.

It would have been nice to have a single-payer system or at least a public option for all this effort, but when you want something more than your opponent does, you are at a disadvantage in the negotiation process.

There is good to be had out of this, with the closing of the Medicare donut hole, the ending of discrimination against pre-existing conditions, ending limits on coverage, and of course, extending coverage to more people. I also hope that this ordeal has finally convinced Democrats that Republicans care about nothing but regaining power and will never negotiate in good faith.

Who lies?

The douchebag who called Obama a liar during his speech last night is a major recipient of health insurance industry lobby money. What a surprise. It's a classic Rovian tactic to accuse the other side of what you are doing. Fight back here.

The Empire strikes back

The authoritarian right is regrouping. The Party of no is adding exclamation points. Even though they are hated more now than last November, they've drawn a line in the sand over health care reform. Generously funded by the insurance companies, aided by the media they own, the right wing has given their minions their marching orders to disrupt debate by any means necessary.

When the Right was in power, they tightly controlled their interactions with the public and stifled debate. Now that they're out of power, they are open in their intent to stifle debate. They know that true health care reform would benefit Democrats for decades and they don't care what they have to do to stop it.

How far will they take it? There have been vague but ominous threats as to what they'll do if they don't get their way on Election Day.

Why we need public health care

A common practice among health insurers is rescission, customers dropped from coverage as soon as they need care. Now that the Democrats are a majority, lawmakers want to put a stop to it. So they had some execs from three of the biggest companies testify. Here's how it went:

Late in the hearing, Stupak, the committee chairman, put the executives on the spot. Stupak asked each of them whether he would at least commit his company to immediately stop rescissions except where they could show "intentional fraud."

The answer from all three executives:

"No."

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) said that a public insurance plan should be a part of any overhaul because it would force private companies to treat consumers fairly or risk losing them.

"This is precisely why we need a public option," Dingell said.

You can see for yourself, it's about 4:45 in:

Health care reform is not reform until it has the public option.

They're doing it again

Disaster is imminent.

As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.”
Mr. Schumer added, “History was sort of hanging over it, like this was a moment.”
When Mr. Schumer described the meeting as “somber,” Mr. Dodd cut in. “Somber doesn’t begin to justify the words,” he said. “We have never heard language like this.”

We're in trouble. But something about that meeting seems familiar... why do the words weapons of mass destruction and civil liberties keep popping into my head? As usual, Glenn Greenwald explains why:

What's most vital to underscore is that the beneficiaries of this week's extraordinary Government schemes aren't just the coincidental recipients of largesse due to some random stroke of good luck. The people on whose behalf these schemes are being implemented -- the true beneficiaries -- are the very same people who have been running and owning our Government -- both parties -- for decades, which is why they have been able to do what they've been doing without interference. They were able to gamble without limit because they control the Government, and now they're having others bear the brunt of their collapse for the same reason -- because the Government is largely run for their benefit.

We're being played again. Yes, this is a serious problem, but anything these people say is probably a lie. So how we deal with it is something we should be careful with. One way of being careful is making the choice between John McCain, who said this;

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

and Barack Obama, who said this:

First, there must be no blank check when American taxpayers are on the hook for this much money.
Second, taxpayers shouldn't be spending a dime to reward CEOs on Wall Street.
Third, taxpayers should be protected and should be able to recoup this investment.
Fourth, this plan has to help homeowners stay in their homes.
Fifth, this is a global crisis, and the United States must insist that other nations join us in helping secure the financial markets.
Sixth, we need to start putting in place the rules of the road I've been calling for for years to prevent this from ever happening again.
And finally, this plan can't just be a plan for Wall Street, it has to be a plan for Main Street.

Time for new management.

Supporting the troops

If you want to see how well our government treats soldiers injured in combat, look here. This is why calling oneself a patriot rings hollow for me. A real patriot wouldn't allow this to happen.

What part of "Health Care" do we not understand?

Elizabeth Edwards sunk a 3-pointer this week when she pointed out that both she and McCain would be rejected by his health plan for having pre-existing conditons. She has breast cancer and McCain was treated for skin cancer. McCain, as is typical for Republicans, wants to keep health care in the private sector. He wants to, (you know the lyrics, people, sing it with me) "let the market decide."

The problem with letting the market decide is that the market is concerned with making a profit, providing "care" is just the means to that end. As long as insurance providers make money by denying care, they will do so, with little or no remorse. The results of this is that we spend more on our health insurance than any other country, yet most of us our still one major illness or accident away from financial ruin. Single payer health insurance is not "socialism," it's compassion and common sense.

Incidentally, one notable policy difference between Hillary and Obama is on this subject, with Hillary's plan closer to the universal coverage we all need. If Obama wins the nomination and hopefully, the White House, Hillary could spearhead a drive towards universal care from the Senate. Her "Hillarycare" was sneered at in the past, but I think the American people, if not the politicians, are ready for it. At least it's about care, not profit and that's whare we need to start.