Apologies for not posting last week. I had final exams, I was going through a week of sleepless nights and food-less days. By the end of it all, it was worth it (although my body seems to think otherwise). I’m pretty sure I passed all my classes, and I’m back to complaining about politics, economics and human society!
This week, I’ve gone back to the health care reform debate to talk about the Senate bill for Health Care reform. It is interesting to note that “A Bill” (yes, that is the name of the bill) is roughly 2,700 pages long, so I don’t expect anyone to read through the whole thing. Admittedly, I did not read the whole thing myself (I no longer have the time to read 2000 page bills that are being thrown around Congress), but I have skimmed several sections on it, and yes, I did read up on it using several sources (both Democrat and Republican -aligned). The bill has gone through several radical changes since it’s movement to the Senate, so note that this is almost a totally different bill than the one that was introduced in the House several weeks ago.
Also, I’ve made a decision to no longer be a redditor. Unfortunate, yes, but I’ve decided that Reddit.com is too unfriendly of a community, and that the users of Reddit are misinformed, ignorant, liberal morons who refuse to acknowledge that other people may be offended by their pretentious and ass-hat behavior. Not every avid internet user is a pig headed atheist who thinks that Obama (or liberal thinking as a whole) is the voice of a generation.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read, and I hope you all have a very pleasant winter vacation! As I will continually remind you, if you’d like to comment, please comment on wordpress (not facebook).
Currently Reading: Nothing, but I anticipate books for Christmas
Currently Drinking: Apple Juice
Currently Eating: Butter Biscuits (which are delicious)
Current Mood: Relaxed
It’s been an interesting week for health care reform, especially since the Senate called their health care reform bill to question (this means forcing a close of debate “on the floor” and making everyone vote) in the early hours of a Monday morning (somewhere between 12-2 AM). Drastically different from the House bill (“The Affordable Health Care for America Act), the Senate bill (“A Bill”) will not include a public health care option, but would increase subsidies to help Americans pay for government-approved health care plans that are in the government-run “marketplace,” otherwise known as The Exchange (The Exchange exists in both the House and the Senate bills). The senate bill also gives more control to the states, who would regulate their own exchange programs and would be able to effectively “ban” health care plans that supported abortion.
Democratically-aligned politicians have urged a passing of this bill. “We need health care reform, and we need it fast,” they urge. As a result, we get this rushed health care reform bill that disregards costs, efficiency and individual rights. So long as it’s a reform, it must be good right? And it’s the government, so we’re sure they have our best interests at heart, right?
Wrong. By forcing the bill to pass, at any cost, before Christmas, the Democratic half (60 of the 100 votes) neglects many problems with the bill, including high cost and poorly designed contracts with private programs. Any problems that they may have essentially gets dumped on the state governments, who have to organize costly marketplace programs, mostly without federal support. And, instead of actually providing reform to our health care system, Congress will opt to pump the market with subsidies so that people have to take poorly designed health care programs. And, if people (or business) don’t want to get health care, they’ll have to pay a fine. They’ll be forced to take government contracted health care plans that they do not want.
And, in total, this bill would cost up to and maybe over 780 billion dollars, even without the organization of a public option. Much of this money would be going into providing subsidies for people under the poverty line (increasing taxes), organizing new health packages (that only cover 50% of all costs), creating 50 different marketplaces, and paying for contracts with private companies. And where will this money come from?
Why, you, of course! Both the House and the Senate bills claim to be self-sustaining bills, but the chances that either plan will receive the money they project from Medicaid/Medicare or any public option are slim, at best. And, as medical costs continue to increase (as more and more people decide to take medical operations that they feel they can afford because “it’s on my health care plan anyway”), taxes will have to increase. Increased taxes on medical supplies, increased taxes on business both large and small, and increased income taxes.
The government may want to pay for health care for 30 million Americans, but money simply does not appear without consequences. And by pushing the bill to be passed before Christmas, the Democratic Senate and President Obama pushes for poorly organized health care reform that will dump us in a worse state than before.
Yes, our health care system needs reform. No, I don’t need to have it before Christmas. If I have to wait another several months for reform that is cheaper, better regulated, and more organized, I’m willing to hold out. This is not a situation where “it’s better than anything else.” This is worse than the health care system we already have in order.
For more information about the comparison between the House bill and the Senate bill, the New York Times has a rather comprehensive compare-and-contrast list between the two. It can be found here. Please remember that the House bill has already been passed, while the Senate bill is going to a vote at 7:00AM on December 24, 2009. Most of you will probably be busy with your friends and families, but it’s important to please keep an ear and eye out for any news! Go! Be informed!
“So long as it’s a reform, it must be good right?”
It really bothers me that people in this country (not you of course) seem to have this mentality. Not all change is good.
The main issue I have is procedurally, of course.
Art. 1 Section 7, US Constitution:
“Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it.”
It strikes me as odd that we feel close to a healthcare reform when the bill that is going up for vote in the senate is not the same as the bill that was voted on in the house. I believe it is the intent of the fathers, if not their direct wording, that both bills would need to be passed by the house that did not propose it (calling for at least one more vote) before it could be put on the President’s desk for signing.
I agree with Mr. Phoenix.
A question arises, though: despite the fact that the bill may be passed, there is always the option to amend it later on, no? I know next to nothing about the political process (sorry, Jo), but I do know a lot about programming, and when you write up code you normally don’t re-edit it until its perfect and then test it. You have to continually test it, in many different stages, to finally get the output you want. I realize that the two (politics and programming) may share little in common, and that this procedure is probably not advisable for such a long-term process as passing a bill, but it does present a similar result, right?
@Phoenix – Yep. One more reform in the House of Rep, and Pelosi already swore up and down that the House would never approve of a bill without a public option. Plus the abortion problem is still up for debate. The House’s bill suggests that individual plans should decide whether or not to put in abortion (with the public option saying no, obviously) while the Senate bill says that the state can choose in whether or not to take abortion out of all health care plans.
We are, however, technically closer than we have ever been. Even with Clinton, who wanted to promote health care reform, we’ve never been as close.
@Nibz – The problem is that the bill (act) being passed is knowingly flawed. It’s like making a website that has javascript that knowingly does not work and saying it’s a completed product. The idea is to get it as close to “right” as we can before putting it out. Even programming follows that concept. If you can catch a bug before you even test it, why not fix the bug?
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Some concerns of moderate Democrats include stating that only the Democrat Party seems totally behind this and with reform this big, there needs to be a bipartisan consensus that has clearly not been achieved. Both bills barely scraped by either House.
That reminds me, what’s this talk of needing 60 votes to pass it? That’s because of the stupid filibuster thing, right?
I feel like the Constitution means nothing anymore.
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