Health Care In America
D. S. Mitchell
The GOP nicknamed the Affordable Care Act, “ObamaCare” and spent seven plus years condemning the program, and promising to “repeal” the entire act, and “replace” with some nebulous unspecified improvement. Remember Trump telling the country’s voters they “will have great health care. Cheaper health care. Everybody will be covered.” What the GOP Congress has offered, and Trump claims he will sign, is a bill that would gut services, slash Medicaid expansion and strangle insurance subsidies.
It has been made obvious since Trump’s inauguration that this candidate had no plan and his rhetoric was a total and complete fabrication. In the recent struggle, the repeal forces are re-energizing and narrowing its focus to eliminate at least the most unpopular mandates of the ACA, such as mandating that everyone buy insurance, and companies with 50 or more employees provide employee insurance. Those two issues, along with the rapidly rising costs, and decreasing policy options in the private marketplace deserve immediate attention.
Republicans have made hay deriding and chastising the Democrats for a less than democratic process during the drafting of the ACA (ObamaCare). Truthfully, the drafting of the ACA was an example of transparency compared to recent efforts by Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan to bring their repeal and replacement to resolution by passage of a new health care law.
The new law was drafted behind closed doors by a small subset of all male, all Republican Senators. There was no public testimony, no input from the health advocacy groups, no outreach to Democratic colleagues. President Trump furthermore, continued to sabotage the behind closed door work of the Senate group, with less than favorable Tweet comments.
When the Senate voted against the most recent repeal effort, the so called “skinny repeal” it was dramatically struck down by the courageous votes of Senators Susan Collins (R. ME), Lisa Murkowski (R. AK) and John McCain (R. AZ). McCain, back on Capitol Hill after recent surgery for a blood clot above his eye, and a new diagnosis of brain cancer cast the deciding vote, killing this most recent GOP effort to destroy ObamaCare.
In a speech the day prior to the vote, McCain asked for a “return to its normal order of business” which in essence is a call for bipartisan drafting of legislation where committees hold public hearings, negotiate compromises that bring together a working majority of lawmakers to vote for the legislation. Ron Wyden (D. OR) my beloved Oregon Senator, echoed McCain, saying “It is now time to work on a bipartisan basis to improve health care for every American.”
Over the last seven years ObamaCare has become increasingly important and popular with Americans. Americans at every level have become alarmed at the GOP plan to drastically slash Medicaid expansion and other services, which in turn would undoubtedly cause significant suffering and premature death in many cases.
The protests and the conversation around the ACA has shown the country is supportive of a level of health care, as a fundamental right provided by modern societies. As a retired RN that worked in health care for 35 years, I’m telling you, we do not want to return to the ways old.
It is time to perform CPR on the ACA and get our health care system back on track after the last six months of anxiety in the market place, created by uncertainty and threats from the White House to withhold insurance subsidy payments. We are coming to an emergency situation and it is time for Democrats and Republicans to work in conjunction, that means together, to shore up the insurance markets, particularly the hard hit rural areas.
Prior to ObamaCare most politicians viewed health care as a big business lobbying behemoth with money to burn. And the public assumed you had insurance or you didn’t. It was when you didn’t have insurance that the system problem became clear. Bankruptcies related to overwhelming medical debt, Emergency Rooms filled with people who had no primary care physician, people un-diagnosed until late stages of illness, and on and on. A system that was abandoning at least 30% of the U.S. population.
The country was at a tipping point and, voila, ObamaCare was created. ObamaCare was a cobbled together mish-mash of elements from the community and the old Romney Massachusetts Plan that the Democrats managed to pass without one single Republican vote. Odd because it was an old conservative think tank model used by Romney when governor of Massachusetts.
Over the last seven years ObamaCare has embedded itself in our culture. The public has tweeked its thinking, and now health care has become recognized as an essential service that requires efficient and effective delivery. The idea of health care as a basic human right supported by the Federal government is growing, encouraged by my darling, Bernie Sanders.
The wounded health care system needs some quick repair work. They repair stuff in outer space for God’s sake. Let’s come together and work on this very earthly problem and find solutions in a bipartisan manner. Ways to develop sustainable mechanisms to provide afford medical care for our citizens. A solution that affects 1/6 of our national economy will necessitate more collective mind set than I have seen recently from the Republicans in Washington, D.C.
It’s time to stop the agitating rhetoric, re-examine old assumptions, forget old grudges and fix a vital element of our economic and social life.
Join the Resistance
Dar
