It was truly a super Sunday for Obama supporters. The long-argued Health Care bill passed the House of Representatives and every member of the uninsured would now have the ability to get insurance. It was hailed as the most significant piece of legislation since the passage of Medicare. Lives would even be saved. Not true. There are four long years until the apparatus kicks in for wider health coverage. Even then the new law affects only an estimated 30 million of the 50 million uninsured.
It was truly a black Sunday for Obama opponents. The long-argued Health Care bill passed the House of Representatives and every member of the insured would now have to lose their insurance as government took over one-sixth of the US economy. It was hailed as the day socialism seize American medicine. Lives would be shortened via "death panels." Not true. What frightened tea party devotees into action sits more comfortably with bailout than Bolshevism. The health industry receives gets 30 million new customers.
The past week as been a tale of preaching to the choir, scaring the choir, or celebrating with the choir. But the members of Congress have mostly been lying to the choir. And cable news is more than complicit in creating a childish narrative of Republican versus Democrat. TV news became TV sitcom and real-life, especially in regards to the new Health Care law, does not make for tidy, 30 minute-long entertainment.
President Obama touted many of the pro-health reform cliches during his signing ceremony for the bill. But the one that had the most ability to soften public opinion was the promise of near-immediate coverage of children with pre-existing conditions. The President proclaimed:
"This year, tens of thousands of uninsured Americans with a preexisting condition and parents whose children have a preexisting condition will finally be able to purchase the coverage they need"
But the
AP quickly reported that:
Under the new law, insurance companies still would be able to refuse new coverage to children because of a pre-existing medical problem, said Karen Lightfoot, spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the main congressional panels that wrote the bill Obama signed into law Tuesday
And to further abuse the illusion of medical euphoria that any Obama supporter may have had
ABC News reported this weekend that Houston Tracy has a pre-existing condition. Houston is a 12-day old newborn and his pre-existing condition applied to him at the moment of his birth. A shocking new precedent that the Hope of this legislation was to make a thing of the past, not the wave of the future.
A harsh reality for any Obama Democrat. But the so-called tea party as made numerous assumptions not grounded in fact. The group has decried the new law, calling it socialism and warning about the end of private insurance. But
health industry stocks have risen the past week and during the anticipation of the bill's passage. The reason is because of the legal mandate for Americans to purchase privately-owned health insurance. The Obama administration, in a very pro-insurance move, negotiated this aspect and decided to forgo an actual government-run program via the so-called public option. This was a betrayal to progressives. All the while, the nation's only truly socialist-style system, the Veteran's Administration, was never in serious consideration as a model for reform.
Key insurance lobbyists guided and even penned much of the language in the new law, including the provision that the IRS enforce the new mandatory enrollment. The law, in effect, is an insurance company bailout. According to
Time magazine, the health industry is not only excited about their rising stock values and 30 million new customers but they are eager to remind the public that they must buy the very product that many Obama supporters thought they were punishing. In a program called "Enroll America":
America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the industry trade group, has agreed to sign on to a new, 50-state health care reform implementation effort, provisionally called Enroll America "We are participating in it," says AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach. "The goal is to get everyone covered."
Other parts of the health industry, including drug companies and hospitals, are also expected to join the effort, which will focus on making sure as many uninsured Americans as possible get insurance under the law President Obama signed Tuesday
It may jog conservative memories to note that the very idea of the individual mandate to purchase insurance comes from likely 2012 Republican Presidential contender, Mitt Romney. Many of the controversial parts of the new health care law come directly from the health reform law Romney championed and signed into being during his tenure as Massachusetts governor. A law that passed with the vote of then-state legislature and now tea party darling, US Senator Scott Brown. To misquote John Kerry: Republicans were for ObamaCare before they were against it.
But some of the tea party grievances that the news media considered outlandish do have credence. The taxes are about to get steep. There is already a whopping 10 percent tax on the tanning industry as of July 1. Many other "sin taxes" are on the horizon with the justification that they keep health care cost low for the the private insurers. Everything from salt to soda taxes is currently being considered. The individual mandate itself is a new tax for the uninsured. All with the IRS in waiting.
Another pertinent tea party worry, "death panels," may well come to American shores. While end-of-life counseling can hardly be called a "death panel" the tea party-ers may want to look into
beginning of life death panels. The United Kingdom, a long-time conservative cautionary tale against single-payer health care, is now rationing the care for premature babies. In the name of saving it's health system money, British doctors are not resuscitating preemies under 22 weeks old. A strict limit that
recently applied to a baby 21 weeks and 5 days old.
Another strike against the potential quality of the new US system may come from the very people who legislated it. Both those on the right and the left may want to take note: lawmakers that are now celebrating health care reform are trying to avoid it themselves.
Politico reports that new health care law may exempt top Congressional staffers from having to enroll.
It may not come as a surprise that in a
recent poll the majority of Americans now want to repeal the new law of the land. But close study of numerous surveys find that the concerns about this bill do not fall into convenient liberal or conservative lines. All sides have their concerns as the competing narratives start to fray as public opinion gets more nuanced. Not good for bumper stickers and certainly not good for anyone who thinks they can predict the upcoming mid-term elections.
Both parties have made threats, promises and celebrations but neither has been fully honest.
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