burn spear

My thoughts on the health care bill.

After the passing of a landmark Health Care overhaul, citizens in all 50 states are engaging in a wild, confusing, and disorganized debate using big words, oversimplified rhetoric, and extravagant misinformation. Some are happy, some outraged, and some downright baffled. But lets summarize the bill before we jump on any populist bandwagons here.

The majority of Americans are against the bill, and 12 states have sued the federal government on the pre-text that the bill is unconstitutional. It is estimated that anywhere between 3 and 18 more states will follow.

But lets not hate on the 2 thousand page fucker- there is alot to be happy about here. The biggest pro of the bill is something it's hard to hate- the prevention of denial for pre-existing

conditions. The bill puts into law that insurance companies are now forbidden to deny millions of Americans previously denied health care for so-called "pre-exisiting conditions" as minimal as acne or a sprained ankle. The president has hailed this part of the bill more than all others, showing everyone how cancer survivors in particular will benefit from this wonderful reform, clearly for the people and clearly going to save lives.

The biggest con of the bill is not at all for the people, but a compromise democrats made with insurance company lobbyists that outraged Americans from Oakland to Pittsburgh. The bill will mandate that uninsured americans must buy health care for around two thousand dollars. Because the bill does not include a public option, as the vast majority of Americans support and every developed country in the world outside America has, it instead mandates that people buy into private insurance regardless of economic situation. Thus, millions of lower-income Americans will be fined by the federal government for not doing something financially impossible. This will create more poverty, less health care, and as sociologists and poloists are forecasting, result in a dip in Approval Rating.

This alone is reason to be against the bill. Something so heinous has got right-wingers screaming "Government Takeover" and "Communism!". Now, as much as I want to call these people nut cases with ignorant pro-rich-only ideologies, they have a point on this one. Communism in Soviet Russia was, and communism in Modern China is, all about government controlling the people and forcing them to make decisions. Forcing the poor to do something they cannot do and then punishing them for it sounds like communism to me.

It's scary, but that doesn't make it a lie. It's hard to hear and difficult to believe in a country so prideful of its democratic freedoms, but this bill is pretty spooky if you ask me.

So while the lobbyists celebrate and the republicans propagate, we the people are left suffering under another failure from Washington. Congress's inability to get shit done has slapped us in the face yet again.

For now, we can only watch to see what happens next. The Supreme Court is bracing for a decision on health insurance reform that we have never seen anything like before.

-Sam