A look back, a step forward

With Saturday night’s historic vote to allow Senate debate on their health care reform bill, it’s a good time to look back on how we got here, and think about the path forward.


The New York Times published a great interactive chart showing the history of health care reform:
A History of Health Care Reform - For almost a century, presidents and members of Congress have tried and failed to provide universal health benefits to Americans.

It reminds us that for almost 100 years, we’ve been trying to get this done. It also makes us think of all those people who went wanting when their lives could have been so different. But past is past, and while the bill taking shape in Washington will not accomplish everything we had hoped, it will represent a vast improvement over the status quo. (I know the final bill has not taken final shape yet, but general framework of making health care available to more people and starting to reign in the unsustainable cost increases is clear.)

There is so much that can still go wrong given the poisonous partisan atmosphere in Washington. Extremists on both sides of the aisle will claim that the bad things in the bill outweigh the good (and if you’ve watched TV in the past few days you’ve seen commercials hammering home their points). But we can’t fail again! Just because the bill doesn’t help everyone and fix everything, does not mean it’s not worth passing.

We must pass a bill this session. The time is now. It won’t be perfect, but it will be a step forward.

As if we needed more proof that the health care situation in this country is unacceptable

The Associated Press: Study: Injured uninsured more likely to die in ER

Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, such as car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in the hospital as similarly injured patients with health insurance, according to a troubling new study.

The findings by Harvard University researchers surprised doctors and health experts who have believed emergency room care was equitable.

Health Care Reform and Abortion

No one ever said health care reform was going to be easy. But does it have to be quite so hard? Last week in the final days before the house passed the “historic” legislation, an issue we thought was settled once again reared its ugly head: How would abortion be handled by plans offered through the exchange.


The answer was going to be that the funds would be segregated, no government subsidy would pay for abortion (even though it is a legal procedure in all 50 states); coverage would be paid out of the individuals’ share of the premium. Ironically, this construct is similar to how catholic schools get money; the money only pays for the sectarian part of the education, not the religious part. (If one of these mechanisms is a gimmick, aren't both of them?)

Suddenly in the final days before the vote, that answer was no longer acceptable. Thus the Stupak amendment came to pass.

Following is an excerpt from Prescriptions: Abortion Puts Some in Congress in a Bind


By By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Robert J. Blendon, a professor of health policy at Harvard, said the choice between trying to stop an erosion of abortion rights and trying to improve health care for women pitted “what are described as two fundamental human rights — the right to universal coverage and the right of access to reproductive services — against each other.”

“They aren’t just policy trade-offs,” he said. “And that’s why this is so wrenching.”

This issue isn’t going away. As outlined in this Reuters’ analysis by Ed Stoddard there are no easy solutions but lots of potential damage: ANALYSIS-Abortion exposes divisions among U.S. Democrats

What do I think? As I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon (11/15/09) I’m not sure. Some Democrats are saying they won’t vote for a final bill that includes the Stupak amendment – is that the right response? I vehemently believe in a women’s right to choose, that part of me says don’t vote for the bill. I also vehemently believe that we must pass some form of health reform this year to expand coverage and start to rein in costs – to not do so will be to miss an historic opportunity and result in a continuation of unnecessary deaths. All I can say today is I’m saddened by the forces in this country that continue to work towards division instead of compromise.

The sad thing is that this is completely normal

The article talks about a lobbyist supplying the same text to Democratic and Republican congressmen for inclusion in the congressional record. This happens all the time... And we wonder (or maybe we've stopped wondering) why it is so hard to do the "people's" business in Congress.

In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists?
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: November 15, 2009
More than a dozen lawmakers? statements on the health care debate were ghostwritten by lobbyists working for Genentech, a biotechnology company.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while

To be honest, I was upset about last week's election (Maine Prop 1) but didn't want to write anything bitter. Now that some time has passed, I'm just left with a feeling of disappointment in the voters for being taken in by the fear mongering of the opposition.

But life goes on, and it’s time to turn our attention back to health care. In the next few days I'll have more to say about some of the ongoing issues (we can't let the quicksand that is the abortion issue in this country derail health care reform) but for today, just a link to an article about my adopted state talking about how hard this all is (and to me highlighting why we need fundamental change).


From today's NY Times:  Maine Finds a Health Care Fix Elusive