The Health Care Reform Mess

I watched a bit of the Senate debate on health care reform today. I'm going to have to stop doing that, because it can't be good for my blood pressure. After gutting all of the real reform out of the bill, both Democrats and Republicans continue to debate what's left like it really matters.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) was actually plugging the bill like it was something he was immensely proud of. It obviously doesn't take much to please Durbin (pictured). At one point, he bragged that the bill would cover 94% of all Americans, saying that would be the highest number of Americans ever covered by health insurance. Of course, he didn't mention that the 94% figure would be reached by forcing people to buy expensive private insurance, that probably won't pay off when it is needed (since insurance companies will still be in charge of treatment for patients).

Frankly, that's doesn't sound like something I can be proud of. Only covering 94% of our citizens sounds pretty pathetic when you consider that other industrialized cover 100% of their citizens, and they do it at half the cost per person that the United States spends. How can they spend half as much, cover all their citizens and still rank higher than the U.S. in delivery of good health care?

The answer to that is easy. They don't spend a huge hunk of their money giving Big Insurance and Big Pharma exorbitant windfall profits. They spend their money on health care for their citizens.

The Senate, including many Democrats, just voted to NOT allow Americans to buy their drugs from other countries like Canada or the European nations. Does that make any sense at all? Big Pharma is obviously ripping off the American public by charging Americans much higher prices than they sell the drugs for in other countries. If they are making a profit by selling the drugs more cheaply in other countries, why can't they do the same in America. The answer is greed.

Real health care reform would cover ALL American citizens with health insurance. That health insurance would be decent and affordable. Doctors would be put back in charge of making treatment decisions and insurance would be required to pay for that treatment. Insurance companies would not be able to deny insurance for pre-existing conditions, or drop patients because their treatment is expensive. And patients would be able to buy their drugs from the cheapest source -- even if that source is in another country.

The pathetic mess that Democrats in the Senate are trying to peddle as health care reform does not meet those standards. It simply gives private insurance companies a huge payday at the expense of ordinary Americans -- without solving the current health care crises.

Passing this very bad bill will not solve America's health care problems. But it will probably put off for many years (or decades) a real solution for those problems. I am ashamed of the Democrats in the Senate. They have failed miserably on their promise to deliver real health care reform.

This bill should be defeated. It is worse than doing nothing.