I don't understand why there is even a "debate" in this country over universal healthcare. News Flash! Everyone gets sick eventually, and everyone wants full access to as many doctors as possible to help them get better. Every citizen in this country should be demanding complete and total public access to quality healthcare. The debate should be about what type of universal health care we have, not whether we should or should not have universal healthcare. This is an issue that effects every single American citizen. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue, or a black, or white, or Latino, or Asian, young, old, gay, or straight issue. This effects everyone in the United States who's currently breathing air.
First of all, I don't know why all our senators and representatives are having "town hall" meetings at all. What are they "meeting" about? There are about 5 different version of bills in various stages of readiness in up to 6 different committees in both the House and the Senate. So what are they defending? A provision in the House Finance Committee bill that may or may not make it out of committee or may be dropped in the Senate version of the bill? Why argue over something that isn't even close to being a law? People are arguing over hypotheticals and what if scenarios, so stop wasting your time and breath. And who is going to these town halls? I'm working during the day. I can't say to my boss, "Oh, I'm taking the day off to go to a town hall." I'd get fired and then I wouldn't have health insurance.
Second, Republicans want to stop the Obama train. The man is politically popular and Republicans don't want to hand Obama one more political victory. While I may agree that it is their right to do this, stopping universal healthcare is the wrong issue to do this on. Universal healthcare is only going to be passed with Democratic president. Universal healthcare has never been a Republican issue. Republicans don't want universal healthcare, they won't take on the hospital and insurance industries to get it done and we'll never get universal healthcare with a Republican president.
This is one of those classic political issues where fearmongering is taking over and people are completely misinformed. The citizens of the United States are very angry right now. The economy is in the toilet, a lot of people are jobless and unemployed with no prospects on the horizon. Americans have seen car companies taken over, large banking institutions and Wall Street saved by a taxpayer bailout, and the largest intrusion of the government into the private sector that has even been seen in American history. I understand that people are upset.
Add that onto the fact that deep, deep down inside, many, many people are still fundamentally racist and they just don't want Obama to succeed on this issue. That's why I titled this blog entry a 21st Century Lynching. That's what Republicans are doing, an old fashion "lynching" of this President at the expense of all of the citizens of the country.
But in Biblical terms shooting down universal healthcare is a classic case of biting off your nose to spite your face. Everyone drowns if this ship goes down. You may have healthcare today, lose your job and ***POOF*** your healthcare is gone. You may be healthy today, but find out you have cancer tomorrow. Life turns just like that, on a dime with no notice or warning, and believe me, when it comes to your health, everyone wants access to the best medical care you can get.
The Obama Administration is making many missteps along the way to be sure. The best healthcare is extending Medicare & Medicaid to all citizens while allowing for private insurance. One of the Adminstration's biggest faults is that it should be pushing for a single payment system (like Medicare - duh!). Will public insurance be the best system? No. And it's not the best system in many other countries either. Let me give you an example. A friend of mine in London needed hermia operation. He could get an operation for free through public health insurance, but he had to wait 6 weeks. 6 weeks suffering through a hernia is no fun, but it's better than not being able to get the hermia operation at all. And if you have enough money, or your employment insurance covers it, you get private insurance and you can get your hernia operation next week. Perfect, no, but either with public or private insurance, you get the operation you need. Turns out what you're paying for is the speed at which you receive your treatment.
And I am willing to pay for universal healthcare (side note - notice how no one in the press or publically uses the term "universal" any more. Universal sounds too big to do). That's right, you can raise my tax rate up to 40% on every citizen for everyone to have healthcare. It's worth it.
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