Pelosification II

Pelosi at the 2008 DNC -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
On November 7, 2009 the US House of Representatives passed bill H. R. 3962, more generally known as the Health Care Bill. Key provisions:

• A public option will be offered for small business and the uninsured
• Individuals will face a fine if not covered, and so will businesses if they don’t offer coverage
• Insurance companies cannot deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions
• Individuals making more than $500,000 and couples making more than $1 million will get a 5.4% additional tax to help pay for the expanded coverage
• Overpayments to doctors who treat Medicare Advantage patients will be cut back.

There are quite a few other details, but this is the basic package. The Senate is now deliberating on its own version – presumed to be more conservative than the House version.

After Ms. Pelosi steered the House version through its perilous journey, she aptly likened it to Roosevelt’s enactment of Social Security. Health Care is every bit that significant – it was a major concern of Harry Truman as far back as 1948. Conservatives are now restaging tea parties and town councils to reiterate their opposition and their blinders-on mentality.

Is Health Care a redistribution of wealth? It certainly is, and much needed. In the current market, health coverage would cost $700/month per person, minimum. Such a cost is completely unaffordable to the poor as well as the lower middle class. The only option now is to damn these “children of a lesser job” to public hospitals where they can die waiting 4 hours for an evaluation.

One of my conservative friends asked how the 4 hour ER wait would be any different with public health care. I would speculate that an expanded health industry will accompany the advent of increased care -- more hospitals, clinics and medical personnel. A greater percentage of our GDP will go towards health care, which it logically should for a growing and graying population.

We consider parks, libraries, super highways and schools important enough to pay for out of the general tax fund. Universal health coverage should be no less important. It shouldn’t be a consumer extravagance for the wealthy – it should be a basic entitlement like a public education. It somehow makes us a more civilized people when we don’t say, “Devil take the hindmost” to the less financially blessed.

Back in 2006, I published a blog titled “Pelosification” when Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House. I did it with a sense of mischief knowing that she is seen by some as a “pushy broad” – an ultraliberal broad no less. I’ve now come to admire her as a feisty fighter and someone who barely, rarely ever takes “no” as an answer when she’s looking for a “yes”. Here’s to Pelosification II – and this time there’s no irony intended. Just lots of admiration.


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