It’s Understandable, and We Need to Understand … Healthcare 101

The Background:

* According to the campaign counter Politifact.com, President Obama made 83 Healthcare promises – 47 are ‘in the works,’ 12 are ‘stalled,’ 6 have ‘been kept,’ 2 have ‘been broken,’ 2 have ‘been compromised,’ and 14 have ‘not been rated.’

* On November 7th, the House passed H.R. 3296, their version of the Healthcare bill.

* On Christmas Eve, December 24, the Senate approved their Healthcare package – H.R. 3590.

What’s Important:

*Integrity

- Is President Obama keeping the healthcare promises he made during his campaign?

- Are my representative’s in-line with my choices? And

* End results – How will the choices affect me financially and my preventive healthcare choices.

Until the House and Senate work out a final bill and it’s signed by the President, we won’t know if Obama’s promises were kept.  However, what your representative(s) are up to, how the choices will affect us financially and preventatively are being decided now.  WE STILL HAVE A VOICE.

We just need the healthcare facts.  Not the left and right rhetoric and pontificating, which like politicians often has its own agendas.

Here it is – Kaiser Family Foundation provides an incredible site which compares key provisions of the House and Senate healthcare proposal side by side.  It’s user friendly, clear and simple language, and continually updated.  Just check the top two boxes (House and Senate Leadership Bills), then select all topics for comparison.

Other points of interest regarding the two bills:

* Both bills prohibit the use of federal funds to finance abortion.

* The House provides for a government health insurance plan (public option) that competes with the private insurance companies, while the Senate plan does not.

* The Senate legislation would be paid for by fees on insurance companies, drug makers and medical device makers, as well as an increase in the payroll tax that workers pay for Medicare.  The House version is paid by imposing a surtax on people earning >$500,000 a year, and levying a tax on the sale of medical devices.  Voice of America, December 29, 2009.

One additional point on the Senate deals* made to get the Healthcare package the necessary 60 votes to avoid a filibuster.  There is something infinitely wrong with our system of governance when the party not in power seems more gung ho to say ‘no’ to any legislation than to work for good legislation, in hopes it will sink the other party thereby putting them back in power in the next election AND the party in power is so gun ho to keep a presidential promise they will make back door deals which further financially hobble our country just so the president can say ‘reelect me, I kept my promise.’  Both parties do this.  Both parties are wrong.  Read a great article by Ezra Klein in the Washington Post.

We are the base that makes democracy work.  Let us never abdicate that right.

* The Senate is giving 100% Medicaid funds to Nebraska, and additional Medicaid funds to Vermont, Massachusetts, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Hawaii, while other states receive only a portion of coverage.