YAAAAAY! Again

The healthcare reform law passed! YAAAAAY!

Wow! Two "YAAAAY"s in less than two years.

Yes, I know, the bill far from perfect. We Trailing Edgesters know all about being far from perfect. It's what we do best.

And yes, forcing people to deal with health insurance companies is a really poor approach. Especially when a single-payer system would be cheaper, better, and healthier.

But this law does also require that health insurance companies must actually provide health insurance. As opposed to taking money from only the healthy and denying claims when they get sick. Or, in a pinch, charging the unhealthy insured more money than healthcare would ever cost, and then denying the claims. If you wonder why the health insurance companies were so set against this bill, re-read those last two sentences, OK? (Linguistic purists, re-read the last two sentence fragments.)

I do not claim to understand why Congress, in its possibly-not-so-very-infinite wisdom, thought the Massachusetts model of healthcare reform was good for everyone. But it (they? he, she, and it?) did. So now everybody and her cousin (or, in this case, his brother) can sue the Federal Government for promulgating an unfunded mandate.

Mind you, the Federal Government has been visiting unfunded mandates upon the States for lo, these many years. Like "No Child Left Behind" for example. That was an unfunded mandate brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Republicans that guaranteed that non-rich American kids would be kicked out, so as to avoid being left behind.

That was an unfunded mandate. But as we can see, friends and neighbors, it depends a bunch on who's doing the unfunding. Not to mention what is being unfunded and why.

So complain to your Attorney General, if she or he is part of the Daring Thirteen who are suing the Federal Government, that this nonsense is costing you money she or he should save for suing insurance companies who don't comply with the spirit of the new law.

And complain to your legislators - better yet, tell them you won't vote for them - if they don't leave this law in place and fix whatever they don't like. They have until 2014 to fix the "required to buy health insurance" part, so they just might make it. If they hurry. And avoid the sentence fragments.

And if your Attorney General or legislator is a Republican, ask him or her to develop (or beg, or borrow or steal) a position. Challenge her or him to do that instead of spreading fear and discontent. It's a much healthier way of avoiding any actual work.

Or at the very least, tell them all to just, in the wise words of my Great-Granddaughter, stoppit!

Debating Health Care Reform

I am pleased that Congress has taken up the issue of health care reform.

I wrote that sentence in June of 2009.

In point of fact, everyone here at the Trailing Edge is pleased with the idea of health care reform. All one of us. And we're coming out right now - a mere year late - in favor of it.

Now, that's trailing for you.

But our Representatives are the real experts at trailing.

After all, I'm actually publishing this blog. Congress is lagging behind the entire developed world when it comes to providing for the health of that small group of Americans who don't have a good health care system. That small group is made up of all the Americans who aren't rich. The non-rich Americans, as I like to call them.

Congress is doing what it does best. Nothing. Especially for the non-rich Americans.

And blaming the President for it, of course.

In fact, the only question about finger pointing that remains unclear is which house does it best. As for the most successful finger-pointing party, I think the Republicans are the winning.

Hands down, as it were.

But really folks, passing health care reform seems to be even less popular than passing noxious reminders of the digestive process. And a lot less likely. At my age, at least.

But that's another tale, although not unrelated to health.

Maybe I should stop blathering and focus on what's really at stake here. Perhaps I can even skip asking our representatives if they think it's fair for corporations to be considered individuals but not pay taxes like the rest of us. The answer to that question is pretty clear and doesn't seem to trouble anyone in Congress nearly as much as it bothers me.

Maybe I should ask you this: ask your Representative if he or she thinks it's OK for Congress to let babies die because they're too busy being pro-life to pay attention to living newborns.

Or maybe we should ask if it's OK for a pregnancy to end tragically as long as the reason was a lack of money or insurance for health care and not someone's choice.

OK, that was harsh. And I'd apologize if it were untrue.

You see, when the House of Representatives refuses to vote on the Senate health care reform bill (after which they can add their many revisions that make life wonderful for the health insurance companies), they are agreeing that letting babies die, and letting unhealthy babies be born to unhealthy mothers, is better than spending money on preventive health care for women before and during pregnancy. Even though preventive health care for women before and during pregnancy is CHEAPER than letting unhealthy babies be born to unhealthy mothers.

Really.

For example, it can cost upwards of $600,000 for one baby to be born and live with an incurable health problem that might have been prevented by giving the young woman a daily dose of multi-vitamins. So why doesn't the woman just take the vitamins? Well, if she's like millions of young American women, somebody – like the doctor she can't afford to see – needs to tell her it's necessary. And some organization – like the healthcare coverage she doesn’t have just now – needs to pay for it. On the other hand, if she has the baby with the severe medical problem, the government will pay for the baby's health care.

And that's how the all the Republicans and some of the Democrats propose to save us money.

That's just one example. There are many, many others. The bottom line is this:
Our Representatives are voting in Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor and whining about the high cost of health care reform. Meanwhile, babies and children and adults are getting sick, even dying, because they can't afford health insurance or their coverage doesn't cover what they need. Meanwhile, the cost of providing preventive health care for everyone who doesn't have a regular source of health care is cheaper than the cost of Medicaid/CHIP after the relatively few Americans get dreadfully, heart-breakingly ill because they lacked that inexpensive preventive health care.

Government intervention is not the central issue. Health insurance is not the central issue. Job security for our legislators is not the central issue. Except for our legislators, of course.

Future generations of healthy, non-rich Americans is the issue. Avoiding bankruptcy of individuals, Medicare, and Medicaid because of costly health care for conditions that did not need to happen is the issue.

Tell your Representative that. Please. Do it for the babies.