Go Away and Come Back When You Want to Help America

I have had it with the self-righteous indignation of the Republican minority over health care reform, and the weak whining of the Democrats in Congress.

I am fed up with hearing, "We don't want the government getting between the patient and the doctor, with a bureaucrat determining care, and telling you you can't see your family physician."

And that is different than right now how? Right now doctors look at insurance first before determining treatment. And even when they make their best decision, an insurance company will still deny payment of a claim because they don't think the doctor made the right decision. Which is exactly what the Republicans claim will happen if there is a public option for health coverage.

I have to find a doctor who is a "member" of my insurance company's plan in order to receive coverage; if I choose to see a doctor outside the system, or, God forbid, out of state, it is a crap shoot whether or not I will be reimbursed. More than one year we have paid out of pocket expenses for our children's care after a certain point a wellness check with mandatory booster shots has put us over the "limit" the insurance company set for the amount they will pay annually for a child's doctor visits. And we still are required to pay our co-pay. And we have what is considered a good health plan.

Congress is not concerned with the well being of the health care industry, they are concerned with the well being of the health insurance industry. It is ludicrous that we function within a payment system that measures its success on how much profit it makes. So it doesn't matter that 60 percent of bankruptcies are a result of health care bills; it matters that the CEOs and executives of health insurance companies continue to make millions of dollars a year. And where does that money come from? From the premiums paid by those people who filed for bankruptcy.

The Republicans sanctimoniously speak against a public health insurance option as being anti-free market. What a bunch of hypocrites! Their health insurance, which they have for life even after leaving the Congress, is public health insurance!

In light of this opposition to government health care, I have a proposal. Completely eliminate any government health care, and let the members of Congress use COBRA or purchase private health insurance. Let them get those denial letters for payment of a prostate exam, or be told which specialist to see or what kind of treatment they can receive for cancer. Let them make a choice between sending their children to college or providing them with health care. Then when they stand before their peers and speak out against a public health insurance option, they will not be hypocrites.

I am sick of this. The Democrats need to stop worrying about looking like bullies just because FOX News says they are. And the Republicans need to just go away until they are ready to face the fact that the American people elected a Democratic majority and the president they did because they wanted a change from the way things have been done for the past 25 years.

And through all of this, they have yet to present an alternate plan that will allow anyone in the country to get medical care without worrying about whether or not they can afford to pay the bills. And forget that tax credit; a tax credit doesn't help when you are facing a 100,000 hospital bill and you make $19,000 a year.

It is time to stop debating. We are hearing the same debate, the same arguments, we have heard since the beginning of the 20th century, especially for the last 20 years. We are long past due to provide basic health care to anyone in the country. We are America: when we do something right, we do it better than any other country. Congress needs to stop worrying about where they're going to get their campaign donations, and restore the dignity of the American people, by making sure everyone can get medical care without having to fight for it.

Those wacky Republicans

Why, Mr. Dickinson, I'm surprised at you! You should know that rebellion is always legal in the first person -- such as "our" rebellion. It is only in the third person -- "their" rebellion -- that it is illegal.

-Benjamin Franklin, "1776"

Isn't it interesting that, in politics, the rules change overnight, as soon as a party is out of power?

Take, for example, the current hubbub over the release of memos detailing the "enhanced interrogation methods" (ie torture) used during the Bush Administration in an attempt to get information about al-Qaeda.

While in office, and (as we now know) as one of the people who approved the methods, Dick Cheney firmly stated over and over again that the information should not be released, that it would jeopardize national security, blah blah blah.

However, now that the memos (which contained a lot of information known publicly already, one of the reasons for releasing them) have been made public, the Republicans, led by Cheney and Karl Rove, are suddenly demanding that even more memos be made public. This from a man who had a man-sized safe in his office.

What changed? Simple! They are no longer in power, and they don't like how the new administration is doing business. Thank goodness Cheney and Rove are not in public office -- they can bluster and condemn all they want to, but they have less power right now than Rush Limbaugh.

I wonder -- in this new zeal for freedom of information, will the former vice president and Mr. Rove eagerly appear in front of a Congressional Committee to talk about what they know about the war in Iraq?