I don’t get it. I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend why Americans in general are dead set against health care reform. I know regular reader Mr. A. can’t wait to tell me it’s all about deficits and concern for our financial future. But I don’t buy it. Where was that concern with our dependence on foreign oil, which allowed countries we diametrically oppose ideologically, to price gouge us for the last four decades? Where was that abhorrence for non-budgetary spending when we went off to a pointless war in Iraq? How about during the criminally negligent Bush tax cuts during the same period? Why not call for some heads when the corrupt financial system nearly brought us to ruin?
How can it be something that is at long last beneficial to the regular Joe that has the crowds baying? I hate to sound like an elitist liberal snob, but have we as a nation lost the ability to understand what is in our best interest? I hear a lot of talk about how Democrats lost the “message war” on health reform last summer, about the time Sarah Palin started spewing her garbage about death panels. But perhaps I gave my fellow citizens too much credit in believing we had educated ourselves beyond that foolishness?
The bill (or bills) are not perfect. I will admit it. I wanted a public option. The changes we are set to implement attempt to build upon and fix the system already in place. That’s certainly better than nothing, but definitely stops short of the revolution some of us were hoping for. Yet and still, a majority of the nation opposes the legislation. It’s a head scratcher for certain.
Insurance companies will no longer be able to: cap your annual health care expenses, drop you when you’re sick, or flat out deny people with pre-existing conditions. Jobless college graduates will be able to keep their parents coverage until the age of 26. Sure, the plan has a cost, but it is more than paid for in long term savings and deficit reductions. We will never be able to say that about the hundreads of billions we have thrown down the Iraq drain.
So what is it? Are we afraid of change? Are the Republicans having to answer to the special interest groups and lobbyists who line their pockets? Are these the people being polled? Why doesn’t CNN ever call me? I don’t have the answers. I am thinking out loud here.
Anyone, anyone?
becky sarwate 