1990 pages, it's far too long and bureaucratic. Maybe it's better than nothing, but I have the feeling I should have picked up a tube of KY when I was at the store this afternoon that'll be useful when United Health Care begins to fully appreciate the final version.
It Does try to end rescission (almost 40 mentions). OK. We'll see. It does try to prevent the abuse of preexisting conditions (20 mentions). OK. We'll see. Fundamentalist religious legislators installed all sorts of restrictions on abortion (25 mentions) in the fear that some fraction of a few tax dollars of their devout faithful might be used to prevent the progressive growth of a fetus that might become a child that none of the faithful want to adopt or support - all about individual freedom, until it comes to your uterus! I don't like abortion personally, and I don't support it, but I see no reason to attempt to go back to the dark ages and make it illegal. Rape, incest, health of the mother, all good reasons to end a pregnancy. Imminent birth of a malignantly deformed or brain dead child - also a good reason to end a pregnancy: let Focus On The Family and their allies line up to pay 100% of the hospital bills and 100% of the costs to care for such a birth. Very angry feminists who want 'abortion on demand', I do not understand and have difficulty empathizing with, but I will not demonize them.
Get the dern Bill to the Senate, get it through committee, pass it using reconciliation with 51 votes, and Americans will love it. Just like they love Medicare, which ALL the Republicans demonized Johnson for ramming through. Just like they love Social Security, which ALL the Republicans demonized FDR for ramming through. 10 years from now, Americans will be fighting to KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF my government regulated health care!
The "free hand of the market" has been busy ramming a thorny marital aid into the rectums of honest hard working Americans who are trying to do the right things, getting health insurance policies, trying to start their own businesses, trying to take care of their families. Hopefully HR3962 is a step in the right direction towards stopping that evil hand. Il faut voir - we shall see.
9 years ago
Wish I shared your optimism, Joe. A watered-down public option that's not much of a safety net, an individual mandate that constitutes an insurer's wet dream, and watered-down reforms that the insurers will ultimately find a way around don't exactly qualify as spectacular. We're still letting the foxes guard the henhouse. And it's not even to conference committee yet.
ReplyDeleteAnd I doubt this bill will pass. If anything, the blue dogs will either kill it or strip it of any remaining meaningful reforms in conference. I'll truly be surprised if this bill passes. And if it passes, I'll be amazed if it changes anything.
My optimism was NOT that strong... I was trying to put a happy face on it. You've crushed it under the heel of your nazi fascist socialist liberal communist boot Joe!! =)
ReplyDeleteHappy to lend a jackboot now and then. As long as it's not a publicly-owned jackboot.
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