Time Is Energy

Health Reform - public option + mandate = crappity crap

I'm disgusted by the legislative process. How exactly does the senate get to the eve of passing a health reform bill that takes better care of the insurance companies than it does the american people?

Yes the bill will cover more americans, but only because it forces all those americans to buy the crappy insurance that we already can't afford! We need some way to bring costs down. Public option, medicare buy-in were ways to control costs (even as neutered as they were) plus they were POPULAR! Now those are out. And what do we get? WHAT DO WE GET? What in this bill controls costs?

I knew the bill was gonna be an insurance companies wet dream, handing them gobs of cash--but I always thought there would be something in it to keep the insurers honest. Something...anything. I dont see it.

I feel just like I did when Hank Paulson proposed TARP to bail out wall street no questions asked. That sucked for the average american (great for the bankers--and their obscene bonuses) and what is left of health reform appears like the same damn thing for insurers who aren't even in a crisis!

Look, I want to cover all americans. We need that, millions of americans lives depend on it--I get it. But that doesnt mean we gotta grab our ankles and let the insurance companies have their way with us. You see what a massive cock-up TARP was, and here you are about to do it again! Stop! this is not why I voted for Obama. This is not why I spent one day a week making phone calls for Obama in 2008.

Obama made his first "major" mistake a couple weeks ago ordering 30k more troops into Afghanistan. But he has been making a series of small mistakes all year--on health care--and other topics. The mistake in all cases has been a near complete lack of leadership. Obama is the F---ing president DO SOMETHING! You are letting a couple senators push you and your supporters around.

If the Health Reform bill passes without a method of cost control it will be a bigger mistake than the Afghanistan escallation.

posted by Daniel @ 11:54 PM