Health Care Reform?
Are you confused by all the noise surrounding the passage of Obama’s health care reform bill? Would you like to educate yourself about the issue? You can do that, but it requires the ability to read and think, both sorely lacking these days, it appears. An excellent place to start is the website of the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP).
For an interesting collection of polls surveying the American public on the health care reform issue go to the website of Polling Report.com.
The bottom line, according to PNHP, is that by supporting Obama’s plan, we have bought a pig in a poke. Visit the PNHP site and arrive at your own conclusions.
Thanks for the links, Jeff. I do agree with PNHP about the need for a single-payer national health program (or at least, a public option), but I really think President Obama knew it would be an impossibility to get a single-payer or public option plan passed and went with a plan that, although it is flawed, at least does SOMETHING to help folks like my family. Right now, we are paying over ONE-THIRD of our income for health insurance, so it will certainly be an improvement for us. What I hope is that Obama simply sees this as a starting point for eventual passage of a single-payer or public-option bill. Of course, I suppose if Republicans win the next round of elections, those hopes will be dashed for now. But I’ll still hope…and pray, I guess.
I can understand the reality that President Obama would never be able to get a single-payer national health program through Congress, but why did he completely shut down any discussion whatsoever about the idea. Common Dreams published an interesting article that explains the difference between public option and single payer and also mentions the fact that doctors and nurses were handcuffed and physically removed from Congress last summer when they tried to bring up the topic of single payer. Maybe you should read the post on Authoritarianism after all! 🙂
I understand that the bill, as passed, will help you and your family, but at what cost? The bill changes nothing about the current system – it merely raises the burden on the taxpayers to enrich the oligarchs who run this country.