Dennis Kuchinich (D-Ohio) got it right when he voted "no" on the House's version of health care reform. Yes, what is passing for health care reform in the Congress and White House really is that bad!
At this stage of the health care end game a "no" vote is not a case of ultra-leftism, or a pig-headed refusal to compromise. Instead, a "no" vote from one of the U.S. Congress' most progressive member is an honest statement as to how bad the health care reform packages really are. There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING in either the House or Senate for working people and the poor. What's worse, pending health care legislation actively does harm to workers and the poor by deliberately excluding the most vulnerable segments of the population from health care coverage and at the same time criminalizing this segment of the population for being unable to afford to purchase health insurance.
Also of great importance, House or Senate legislation contains nothing which will limit health care inflation. The failure to deal with astronomical rises in the price of health care will insure that those who are insured will continue to be subject to less and less health care at higher and higher prices.
The big winners in the health care reform game are the insurance companies, who will get a 60 million person captive market forced to buy highly profitable, minimal coverage catastrophic health insurance plans. The other big winners are the health care chains who will benefit when the minimally insured poor check in for their final high-cost terminal illness.
If you ask me, it is asking a lot to ask the poor, working class and unemployed, to fall on their swords to make the Democrats look good. The current health insurance legislation sucks to its last comma. I'd like to suggest, with this analysis in mind, that we call our legislators with the following three messages:
1. That legislators have created a monster that's so bad it should be killed.
2. That legislators of both parties, at least in Oregon, have failed society's most vulnerable individuals miserably.
3. That Democratic Party politicians should be aware that our support is not automatic and might very well not be there in the next election.
I'd also like to suggest that, given the actions of the current Administration and Congress, we on the left start acknowledging what we've always know, that workers have no political party in the U.S., and thus, we learn who to fight from the grass-roots.
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4 comments:
The irony is, the creation of that captive market backed up by the coercive power of the state is a fascistic measure. No one ever said bourgeois politicians aren't clever.
and i agree on the rising cost insanity. my premiums will go up 19% in january. what other commodity does that? well, oil... point made. the robber-barons stick together i guess.
this is another bill written by corporate entities for corporate entities, passed off as progressive. it's embarrassing that only 39 democrats voted against this.
Good post. Plus there are so many specifics about this bill we do not know. I don't think we will be pleasantly surprised. I feel like I am in a bad remake of a bad rerun
And the bill included an amendment
that would "ban private insurers who participate in the insurance exchange created by the health care bill from covering abortion as a part of women's reproductive health care." Called the Stupak amendmend, 20 "formerly pro-choice Democrats" for it. CREDO created a campaign to protest --- at http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/send_a_coathanger/?rc=chaser&r=5027&id=6701-2375280-SK2ka5x
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