Health Care Reform: Redux Ad Nauseam

“For millions of Americans, time is of the essence. Let’s not sit quietly by and wait for health care reform to come to us. Let’s become part of the solution.”

I wrote that last January as I eagerly anticipated the health care reform promised by a new administration. I knew change wouldn’t come easily and much patience would be required, but I was woefully unprepared for the year that followed.

Shock and awe is how I would sum up my feelings this summer as I watched our nation grow more polarized than ever… over health care. Guns at town hall meetings, public threats to the President, calls to violence… over health care. We pulled out the big weapons… God and the constitution of the United States… over health care. Access to health care, something all other industrialized nations manage to provide their citizens still eludes us. It seems we are proud of our every man for himself philosophy, even when it means that ordinary hardworking citizens have no access to basic health care.

As the reform bills made their way through the House and the Senate, I held out hope that the end result would a sweeping overhaul of the health care system, wrestling control from the hands of for profit insurers. The end result is still unknown, but there is likely to be no public option, no Medicare buy-in, no competition at all.

According to Bloomgerg.com, $600 million has been spent in 2009 trying to influence members of Congress, and there are 3,300 lobbyists registered to lobby on health care. There was a lot of money at stake, and the key players played to win.

If the final Senate bill is any indication, health insurers have come out way ahead, with 20 million or so new customers and no competition from a government plan. To say that this is a crushing disappointment would be an understatement.

Health care reform is an issue I have taken to heart, and my spirits were further dampened on Christmas eve, when I received notice of a 35 percent premium increase. I was angry, frustrated, and exhausted, teetering on the brink of joining the ranks of the “kill the bill” crowd. A mandate and no public option? We might as well stick with the devil we know as get involved with this monster. Either way, people like me (chronic illness, no employer-based coverage, not eligible for Medicaid), are trapped. We’ve played by the rules and lost anyway.

What would be accomplished by killing the bill? Instead of less than adequate reform, we end up with no reform. After the ugliness of 2009, how long will it be before another President has the conviction and the bravery to take up the cause? What member of Congress will sponsor a health care reform bill? How many more Americans will suffer needlessly for lack of health care? Killing the bill is not the answer.

Change in America has never come easily or quickly. Disappointing as it may be, change sometimes must come in increments. If we can get tens of thousands more Americans access to the health care they have been denied, we are one step further than before. It will forever be a work in progress.

A new January dawns and I shall say it again. “For millions of Americans, time is of the essence. Let’s not sit quietly by and wait for health care reform to come to us. Let’s become part of the solution.” Even if a reconciled health care reform bill passes, the fight for affordable and accessible health care for all Americans must — and will — continue. I’ll say it every January if I have to.

Get my updates on Twitter @AnnPietrangelo

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Photo: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1208854

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Richard N.

5:04AM PST on Jan 7, 2010

Thanks for sharing!

send a green star

Linda M.

9:40PM PST on Jan 6, 2010

thanks

Rajshree B.

10:29AM PST on Dec 31, 2009

Thanks for the post!

P H.

7:01AM PST on Dec 31, 2009

THere is no fixing this bill later, that is not how it works. NO reform is better than mandated health insurance, our premiums are now going to be continually increased while we receive no benefits.

The only people benefiting from these bills are the insurance companies.

BMutiny T.

6:54PM PST on Dec 30, 2009

"Other countries with their Socialized Medicine don't seem to have attained the heights this great Nation has...."
This is the MYTH of "American Specialness"; and while exceedingly comforting to Americans, to those Americans who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the rest of the world, and don't WANT to know..... it is simply and plainly, NOT TRUE.
This country on statistics of Health Care such as lifespan, Infant and Maternal death-rates, and other indicators THAT CAN BE VERIFIED, actually ranks 37th -- that's right, THIRTY-SEVENTH -- in Health Care among all the world's nations. Not even in the top 10%, or the top 20%!!!
ALL the other industrialized nations have "Socialized Medicine" and rank WAY, WAY ABOVE the United States! WHAT WE NEED, AND BADLY, AND IMMEDIATELY, IS SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. We are rapidly getting a "Third World" Nation profile; with a vast gap between the super-rich and the very poor, with the Middle Class vanishing. BANKRUPTCIES BECAUSE OF HEALTH CARE COSTS, is one of the reasons for this.
We need IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR EVERYONE; tho Medicare is not perfect, I don't know how I could survive without my Medicare. Health Care is a HUMAN RIGHT and should be GUARANTEED to all; not only to those who can pay! The Capitalist System of Corporate greed and profit-taking, is anti-human and rotten to the core. Other countries HAVE A HIGHER STANDARD OF LIVING THAN OURS; and feel SORRY FOR US.
American "Specialness" is a MYTH; and nothing else.

Larry H.

2:31PM PST on Dec 30, 2009

I believe that if both parties would just quit trying to find blame with each other,and if the die hards would quit trying to set our first black president up to fail,and start working together,something might be accomplished.

Mervi R.

2:12PM PST on Dec 30, 2009

Accessible and affordable health care for everyone should be a basic right, not the source of great controversy. Coming form a country where that care is a given, the debate over it seems almost incomprehensible.

Harriet J. B.

1:11PM PST on Dec 30, 2009

From what I understand about both versions of the healthcare legislation is that it will help many people, it will help my country, but it will probably hurt me, because I have a Medicare Advantage plan.

Marie R.

11:41AM PST on Dec 30, 2009

I look at the Health Bill as not perfect or even near good, but I understand that if we do not start some where it will never get done. As a people we want every thing but is not willing to wait or pay for it. The Health Care Bill is a huge step forward and it will help so many people save lives that would other wise be left on their own trying to pay for Doctors care and Hospital bill. Most don't have doctors the E R is their doctors. This bill is the beginning we can and must build on it to make it better.

Abo r.

11:22AM PST on Dec 30, 2009

Something is better than nothing.
The thing is to have something.!!!