Change we can’t believe in.
Photo by Luke Thomas
By Jill Chapin
December 18, 2009
There are strange bedfellows aligning themselves around the country as we settle into our heated positions in the healthcare debate. Increasingly, groups and individuals don’t care with whom they agree or disagree, such is their vehemence for what they see as the wholesale sellout by Congress and the President. MoveOn.org and the tea party people both dislike the healthcare reform currently on the table, as do both Democrat John Dean and Republican John McCain.
In fact, more Americans than ever are adamantly against huge chunks of this behemoth of a bill that is viewed as better serving the insurance companies than the rest of us.
What the president seems unwilling to accept is that this growing tide of bi-partisan distrust of current healthcare reform proposals is based more on facts than on uninformed fears. He can posture all he wants about us not understanding it, but he loses that argument. We do understand all too well the disingenuous ways this bill is presented, but if he truly believes we can’t tease out the actual meaning of the thousands of pages spewing forth from Congress, then Washington should re-work it in order to make it comprehensible to the general public.
President Obama should not turn a deaf ear on the voters who don’t like where health care reform is heading, and who are especially wary of his far too cozy alliance with the insurance companies.
We’re onto the sham outrage by the insurance lobby who is pretending to be against reform. We get it. They’re playing bad cop against Obama’s good cop. They’re hoping we will side with the President and give him our support of a bill that will actually become a bonanza for the insurance industry.
Because why would insurance companies oppose a plan that forces millions to buy insurance?
And the language in the bill forbidding insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions is not going to help policyholders at all. Premiums will simply rise across the board for everyone, not only recouping their costs but further increasing their profits as well.
Real reform – with teeth – would not only prohibit denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions; it would also roll back rates to a point in the past and then only allow a pre-set amount of rate increases from then on.
Mr. President, it’s difficult for us to grasp the power the insurance lobby has over you. We don’t understand how they can exert a stronger pull than we, the electorate. But you will find out soon enough who ultimately wields more power.
Voters gave you your first term; the insurance lobby may deny you your second one.
The Hunger Site