The Senate healthcare reform bill passed with no votes to spare, As far as I can tell, the vote was strictly along party lines... it wasn't up on Thomas yet, so I couldn't verify that. Barack Obama must be very proud of his bipartisanship now.
According to a Census report in September, the number of uninsured Americans reached 46.3 million. According to the NYT, the newly passed Senate bill "will make coverage affordable for over 30 million Americans who do not have it." I realize the rules of arithmetic have been "rationalized" since my childhood, but how can they call the bill "universal" healthcare coverage and still omit 16.3 million Americans from coverage? I know... perhaps their universe is smaller than ours.
I know a lot of people are saying it can be fixed in reconciliation, or in future bills, or whatever. But that's like the old ironic remark sometimes made in the recording studio: "we'll fix it in the mix." Oh, yeah; that's exactly what will happen. Once again, we've been nailed, folks.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Here's wishing you and Stella a very happy Christmas, Steve
ReplyDeleteI found these comments at a BBC discussion page to be pertinent:
ReplyDelete(People have taken) and kept jobs they hated for no other reason than employee health coverage. It is one of the ugly truths about capitalism (,) a type of enslavement to your job for fear of not having health coverage especially if you have children. If there was true public healthcare in the US it would change the entire workplace relationship. This bill makes 'slavery' in the US offical. (...)
Duprey, Terre Haute, US
It appears that Lieberman played a decisive role in killing the public option. While on the surface, the bill from the Senate appears to be a victory against the bad guys -- no Republican voted for it -- it's hard to figure how no public option -- that is, the refusal by the government to allow people to use their government to organize their own care and security -- is in any way an incremental victory for the people, especially as it comes at a time when the left presumably wields a lot of power. (I don't believe that, but things may well get worse soon, especially if the right is successful in hyping this pro-business bill as the second coming of Stalinism.)
A very Merry Christmas to you, Stella, and Samantha, Steve.
ReplyDeleteSave your anger and worry to the new year, because we don't know what, if anything, will come from the conference.
The House has been sounding a little annoyed lately, and might surprise us all by showing a little spine.
I'm not pinning any hopes on that, but it's possible.
Have a Merry Christmas, Steve and Stella! And a Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteJust came here from The Sideshow.
ReplyDeleteAn adjustment to your numbers: In scoring the Senate bill, the CBO said that under "current law," in 2019 there would be 54 million without health insurance. The Senate bill would see 31 million of that number insured, the agency said.
That is, by the CBO's analysis, in 2019 there would be 23 million still without any health insurance.
Welcome, LarryE, to the YSS. That is a disturbing increase, even allowing for the difference between last September (the Census Bureau report) and 2019 (CBO's numbers), that's a huge (and to me unacceptable) number of people uninsured. Some "reform" plan, eh?
ReplyDeleteFYI, the reforms don't leave 16 million Americans uninsured. They leave 16 million non-U.S. citizens without coverage.
ReplyDeleteCowardly Anonymous who will not put his name to his disagreement: is that supposed to make a difference? If you believe a U.S. resident should be denied coverage because s/he is not a citizen or is undocumented, (a) you are one heartless bastard, and (b)you haven't given adequate thought to whether infectious viruses and bacteria can distinguish an American citizen from anyone else. In other words, you're a fucking fool. Go away.
ReplyDeleteLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam faucibus erat a urna rutrum commodo. Nunc ac sapien est, quis dignissim ipsum. Cras sem lorem, convallis et sagittis at, faucibus quis odio. Vivamus nisi nisl, accumsan quis ultricies quis, fermentum feugiat elit. Aliquam auctor augue eu neque rutrum vitae placerat tortor sagittis. Aliquam vel nibh quis ipsum consectetur rutrum id eu ligula. Nullam porta accumsan auctor. Suspendisse condimentum feugiat lacus, id sollicitudin sapien sollicitudin vel. Aenean vel arcu libero. Vivamus vel purus metus. Etiam ligula erat, dictum et luctus eu, tempor sed nunc.
ReplyDeleteApparent translation: some folks don't learn very fast. Now go away.
ReplyDelete