Against the better judgement of my "fun"side, I've been watching the House session since noon today. That was 6 1/2 hours ago. I also watched the 5 hour Health Care Summit a couple of weeks ago, and felt much the same then as I do now. That being said, I would like to leave any party affiliations or preconceived notions out of this blog, as those are completely irrelevant to me.
I hear alot of talking, but not much actual discussion. Each side keeps saying the same things over and over, but neither actually addressing the questions of the other side or the questions of us, the constituents. No one has seemingly bothered to notice that there is not one poll in existence in which the American people are in favor of this bill. Not one. Isn't the entire point of a democracy for the government to be run by the people? They're not even listening to us!
My concern in this highly volatile issue is this:
If we already know that Medicare is a broken system, and we already know that Social Security is a broken system (out of money this year due to the fact that baby boomers are now retiring, and the govt. has been "borrowing"from SS for years), and we already know that the U.S. Postal system is broken... why on Earth are we trying to put yet another government-run program into effect? Especially one of this magnitude?? It seems like a fundamentally proven bad idea.
Do we need health care reform? Absolutely. Our country has problems. There are too many people who are uninsured because they cannot afford coverage. There are even more people who are uninsured because a pre-existing condition has deemed them "uninsurable" by insurance companies. But, that as this bill stands now, I do not believe that it is the right solution.
I don't know how many of you have really done your research on this bill, as they certainly aren't making it easy to do so. However, all the media pieces aside, and the partisan penned articles aside, I think people would be surprised to know some of the things these officials are trying to push through with this bill.
Yes, it's great that with the passage of this bill, insurers will no longer be able to drop you from coverage or deny you coverage due to a pre-existing condition. Yes, it's great that everyone in the country will be able to get insurance for an "affordable" price, based on the level of your income. Though I have yet to hear exactly what "affordable" means. Affordable to the middle class family bringing in $80,000 a year is probably not the same affordable to the widowed 80 year old trying to make it from one deteriorating Social Security check to the next. Additionally, the new healthcare plan is being made it mandatory by penalty of a "substantial" fine, and that to me is absolutely unethical. I find it awfully presumptuous for the government to determine what we can and cannot afford to pay, without knowing each and every one of our individual situations. And if that is not enough, if we do not pay for this mandatory insurance they then have the audacity to charge us a fine.
And how will we pay for this grand new system? Well, taxes of course. Not right away mind you. They plan to continue to "borrow" from the near bankrupt Social Security, and cut the already sparse Medicare coverage for the elderly for a few years until they get brave enough to start raising our taxes.
Can NO ONE come up with a better plan than this?? Why are we rushing into something that stands to shake the entire nation to the core?? YES, we need reform. YES, we need a new plan. But can't we put a little time into working out a more reasonable, more fair, more effective course of action? Why do we have to be force fed this particular bill rightthisfreakingminute?? It seems that in a decision this big, with so much hinging on it's success, that we could afford to take a little time to get EVERYONE'S input and make sure it's something that is going to work.
Our futures are riding on it.
