Health-care Reform ... or rather lack thereof...

I have to wonder, are the Democrats as dumb as they seem?  It looks to me like they are in for a beating come the 2010 elections because, among other things, they are blowing it on health-care reform. Seriously, folks, is it just me, or do you see how the Democrats got punked on this one?

Here's the way I see it.  The bill that will come out of the Senate should be renamed the "Help the Insurance Companies Screw The American People on Health-care Act of 2009".  Seriously, it sends a ton of new people and a ton of money to the insurers and basically provides nothing for us ordinary folks out here trynig to make a living.

As a matter of fact, as I see it, it's going to make things worse. For example, the provision that the Democrats keep pointing to that prohibts the insurance companies from refusing you coverage due to a pre-existing condition sounds great. Until you read it and find out that it allows the insurance companies to charge you up to 3 times as much if you have a pre-existing condition! Boy, let me guess what's going to happen ... everyone is going to have a pre-existing condition, and are going to have to pay more once this goes into effect. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the other things, like the insurance exchange won't go into effect for years, but the taxes and the mandatory coverage all go into effect immediately. Yup, that's right folks, we can wait, but our friends in the insurance lobby made sure that the insurance companies will get all those new subscribers and money right away!

So, in the end, this bill has had any kind of protection from the greedy insurance companies stripped out of it. And any way that more money can be sent into insurance company coffers put into it.  So can someone tell me why in gods name any self-respecting Democrat would vote for this piece of junk?

I suspect I know the answer, I think it's fear. Fear that if they don't pass something, that the same thing that happened in 1994 after the last time they failed to pass health-care reform is going to happen again, and I think that they are partially right.  I think that they are looking at the same thing happening, but not just if they don't pass anything, but I think it will happen if they pass a piece of junk, like this current bill, too.

I think that they only way to keep the train from running off the cliff in 2010 is to scrap this abomination of a bill and start over. The new bill should be simple (Medicare for all!), it should take effect immediately (how long can it take to set up Medicare for all?), and it needs to help ordinary working folks in this country by actually reducing the cost of their health-care! If the Democrats do that, then they can justifiably say to the American people in 2010, here, here's what we did for you, look at your paycheck every month. Oh, and by the way, the Republicans (and that jerk Lieberman) tried to stop us from helping you! Again, look at your paycheck, it would be smaller if we weren't in power, help us to keep helping you!

What I don't understand is how out of touch the Democrats in Congress really are. All of this seems obvious to me. Pass meaningful health-care reform that takes effect before the 2010 elections, or die. What is it about that they don't understand?

--joerg