Insurance Care

Man says he is not a bigamist
because he failed to say
“I do” during second marriage.

I guess we should be thankful that the House passed some semblance of a health care bill, even if it is a sell-out to the Insurance industry. For me it’s really quite simple, if the Insurance industry is still included in our health care system, the system cannot be worth having. I believe this sincerely as I can see no reason why Insurance companies should have anything whatsoever to do with health care. They make no contribution towards health at all, merely shuffling paperwork around and devising more and more outrageous ways to keep from paying. Their obscene profits are in direct proportion to the amount of misery they produce, and they produce plenty. It is apparently true there are some positive features to what has been passed so far. But in return for any positive change for the better the Insurance industry was given some 30 to 40 million more people who are now obliged to carry health insurance, they now have to have it, and if you think the Insurance companies came out on the short end of the deal you must be either naïve or Republican, or both. With that many more suckers to fleece the Insurance people can afford to be (at least a little bit generous).

Of course so far the bill has only made it through the House. It still has to go through the Senate. It is quite possible we will end up with no health care bill at all, or one that is worse than what we have now (if, indeed, that is even possible). Like Afghanistan, said to be the graveyard of empires, the Senate is often the graveyard of anything that smacks of improving the public welfare. At the moment one of the grave threats emanating from that pompous body is coming from Joe Lieberman who says he will oppose any bill with a public option. This wouldn’t be quite so bad if Holy Joe didn’t insist his conscience will not allow him to do otherwise. From his behavior of the past few years I wasn’t aware he had a conscience, but if he does, it doesn’t seem to bother him that he and his wife have benefitted handsomely from the very interests that do not want to see a public option. I suppose this is just a coincidence. But if you think Lieberman is hypocritical about this he is not alone. Evan Bayh and his wife benefit even more from these predatory industries and Bayh, too, is threatening to vote against the public option, just another strange coincidence no doubt.

There is another reason we may not get a bill, those uppity women who insist they should have control over their own bodies. In order to get a bill passed in the House Pelosi had to agree to allow a vote on the Stupak amendment. As the Stupak amendment turns the clock back a bit on the right to choose, naturally it passed. Pro-choice women, who are in the majority, are (rightly) furious about this and some are now saying no bill can come out of the Senate unless this Neanderthal amendment is stripped out completely. I don’t know if this can happen as elderly white men seem determined that they, above all others, should have control over women’s bodies. Is this perhaps just the survival of a primitive form of womb envy carried over from the distant past?

It appears that the only two Congressmen with valid reasons to vote against this health care bill were Dennis Kucinich and Erik Massa. They saw it for what it is, a gigantic giveaway to the Insurance industry. I don’t know anything about Massa, but Kucinich has long been a champion of single-payer health care, the only plan that I, too, believe is truly is worth having. Kucinich seems to be about the only person left in Congress (along with Senator Bernie Sanders, gasp, a socialist) who actually believes they should act in the public interest (for which they are often ignored, ridiculed and considered “eccentric” or worse).

I think that even with all its flaws, including the fact that it is basically not worth having, we do have to commend Pelosi for a job well done. Obama and the Democrats under Pelosi did manage to pass something that no other congress has been able to pass for somewhere between 60 and 100 years. This did require great political skill and hard work, especially given the intransigent nature of the Democratic Party and its representatives in Congress. It does remain true that doing nothing at all is not an option, but I do wonder if awarding billions more to the Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries in order to get some little more than cosmetic changes will be worth it.

LKBIQ:
The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.
Confucius

TILT: Agoutis are regarded as the only species that can open Brazil nuts without tools