And, just for the process wonkiness…
I know friends and family have profound disagreements to my impression of what happened today….And I myself have some serious concerns about what we actually got (see my comment on previous post). But I’ve worked really hard to help achieve something I perceive as an absolute good. Insurance Reform….
When I’ve been forced into dealing with difficult medical stuff, chemo, surgeries…and I actually had to get admitted.
When others would have to, and admit they were scared, I’d always say…the sooner you start, the sooner you get done…
Well, understanding of healthcare as a right, not a privilege…has at least wheezed out of the starting gate.
What’s left is the Senate, but I can’t help but celebrate
Forgive the juvenile stuff that follows.
We got involved.
Some media listened (Goodman, Schultz, Olbermann, Maddow THANK you)
Our legislators (sometimes) listened.
Our President had a great endgame.
We got the vo-tes We got the vo-tes!
Do the Snoopydance…we got the damn votes.
220! Put that in your teabags and drink it!
Oh, and Rush? You said you’d leave the country if healthcare got passed…
“crickets..” Thought so.
Purity vs Pragmatism or, Politcs vs Helping sick people
Ok, as this debate has moved on towards it’s present conclusion…
I feel the need to say a few unpopular and inconsistent things.
Item one: I wish the rightward folk would stop complaining…
Because, you didn’t get the dreaded Single Payer or a public option that you view as “Socialism!!!! Ah! Ah! Ah! Run for your lives!!!! Single Payer will eat all ‘real Americans’ Alive!!!!!! The Public Option is the death of democracy!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!
That. Didn’t. Happen. So, you won that corner of the debate. That’s right. I. Said. You. Won.
If one wins, in general, one STOPS kvetching.
And, Profit got a big boost for the private insurance industry. Huge. So, Wall Street is happy about this. Insurance stocks shot up. What’s not to like? Sleep easy. Congress is a bought and paid for subsidiary of lobbyists and big business.
There is, bipartisan agreement on one thing. individual mandates suck.
But a buncha healthy people have to be thrown into the risk pool to counter adverse selection.
And on the left…
I won’t say much, but fellow cancer survivor Jane Hamsher does not get a freepass on making common cause with Grover Norquist no matter the benefit of her early work to mobilize people to work for reform. Giving traction to those who wish to do nothing at all about our system. It’s not just good intent gone horribly wrong. It’s disgusting.
WTF!? WTF! I thought it when I saw it, and I thought it when I played the Fox video again, and I still think it. In the name of Hippocrates and every doctor that has had to treat an uninsured patient, how in anyones mind will ‘Kill the Bill” help the ill and uninsured??????It makes them wait just that much longer (maybe much more than the time til 2014. ) It. Makes. Them. Wait. and some cannot afford to wait (I hate to think of the people, even now, who will have to wait for the implementation of the current bill.)
I’m not saying the bill in the Senate and it’s likely strong similarity to the final bill is any kind of decent bill…but if
1. More people have coverage.
2. More people get preventative care because with insurance they *may* be able to afford it? And, that preventative care helps aviod some long protracted illness, or even staves off death and gives better quality of life…
3. Fewer people die too soon, in other words die a preventable death due to lack of care?
How is that not the beginning of good?
If this flawed bill is killed, how many will sicken and die for lack of care because Purity is the ultimate goal?
We will have horror stories I know. horror stories of people who do get sicker and die because of the deny deny deny culture of the private insurance industry….
But fewer. Fewer than if they had no coverage at all and no hope of getting any.
Less people getting sick or dying trumps politics. Every. Single. Second. Less people dying is *why* we’ve had this mind numbing year of nuts. We want fewer people to sicken unecessarily and die too early. That is the goal of healthcare reform. That. Nothing else.
Both sides have made this a game to determine a purity test.
This is not a game. This is breathing more. This is adding more good days to many, many peoples lives.
This is not politics.
It’s about living.
My Head Hurts
Kyl is pro- life, by definition.
Kyl is against maternity care in the markup of the Senate Finance Committee Healthcare Bill
My. Head. Hurts. Arizona, you’re smarter than that.
Midlife And Treachery 
