The United States of America is sick.
The diagnosis: ideological warfare, extreme partisanship and a $12 trillion national debt. Despite the health care bill recently signed into law, America remains in need of a cure for its ills. President Barack Obama and Congress tried to offer up a cure, but because of Republican obstructionism, public ignorance and the fear gripping the Democrats, they ended up offering the country Advil, not penicillin ““ a laundry list of well-intentioned consumer protections, not universal health care.
The law is still a step in the right direction, insuring an additional 32 million Americans not previously covered. Students get to stay on their parents’ plans until they’re 26 years old, and most importantly, people with pre-existing conditions are no longer subject to the whims of insurance companies.
Previously, insurance companies could and did bar those with chronic conditions on the basis that they would inevitably cost more to insure, as they would be receiving much more treatment than the average health care consumer. It essentially meant that insurance providers had the ability to deny health insurance to those who most desperately needed it. As a result of insurance companies having such power over our physical well-being, people have died. The previous system was clearly flawed, and the current legislation fixes a national problem that became a tragedy.
But before the ink could dry from Obama’s pen, 13 attorney generals began to take legal action against the legislation. Their chief legal claim is that the mandate that all Americans must purchase health care is unconstitutional.
Democrats assert that because Congress has the right to regulate interstate commerce, it also has the right to mandate someone buy health insurance. Without the mandate, this bill would have been dead on arrival.
When an uninsured person goes to the hospital, it comes straight out of the taxpayers’ pockets. Health care is an essential part of any economy, and the claim that a mandate to purchase insurance is unconstitutional ignores the reality that by not purchasing health insurance, an individual affects every American taxpayer and every recipient of health care. It is irresponsible to have uninsured citizens in a society as advanced as our own. Hospitals nationwide have had to close down for just this reason. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted to this during the 2008 primaries, and Obama has had to accept it during his time in office by including it in the law despite campaigning against it.
Ironically, Republicans first brought up the idea of a government mandate as an alternative to former President Bill Clinton’s universal health care plan. Former President Richard Nixon supported it, former Gov. of Massachusetts Mitt Romney used it when he reformed health care in his state, and even conservative think-tank The Heritage Foundation used to be for it.
The “Tea Party” is a big part of the problem. For example. they launched racial epithets at black members of Congress. Many Tea Party members still want Obama to prove he is a U.S. citizen. Most believe that the bill brings America too close to socialism. They shouldn’t be taken seriously, and it follows that their shouts of communism and socialism hold little merit.
True, the bill is an expansion of the government into the realm of health care, but it falls short of tax-driven, government-run health care in Europe or Canada. The most “socialist” ideas that were popular in the House of Representatives ““ universal health care and a single payer option ““ were taken out of the legislation for fear that the word “socialist” would stick, and for fear that the Democrats would lose in the upcoming elections as a result.
And who is to say that socialism is such a bad thing? How is it that it came to be so powerful an idea in America as to stop Democrats from pursuing universal health care? The word’s inclusion in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party certainly didn’t do it any favors, but mainly the stigma attached to the word arose from McCarthyism and the fear of Russians, high taxes and government dictation. Filmmaker Michael Moore may be a propagandist, but he’s right when he says capitalism hasn’t done America too many favors.
Perhaps a little socialism is what this country needs. It certainly seems to be working for our European and Canadian allies. Socialist parties flourish all over Europe,. They seem far more capable of managing a complex health care system than we are, or so Taiwan, London and Canada would attest as they place higher on the World Health Organization’s rankings than we do.
What we have now is a consumer protection bill and little more. Why then, with a bill that should have had widespread bipartisan support, did America undergo such ferocity? Part of it, admittedly, was that Democrats had originally intended to pass universal health care, but once that was dropped from the legislation, it was nothing more than Republican obstruction and fear-mongering, along with a general lack of knowledge, that created the shameful debate, which included cries of “baby-killer” from a member of Congress. A truly shameful sight indeed.
E-mail Zymet at pzymet@media.ucla.edu.
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