What They Deserve

All of those people who have been showing-up at town halls and tea parties in order to protest President Obama’s plan for health care reform deserve one thing—to win. I wish it was possible to enact health care reform with a public option and exclude from its benefits all of those screaming right-wingers who so vociferously oppose it.

I wish such people could be required to go on as before with higher and higher premiums, co-pays, and deductibles for private health insurance; continued rationing and denial of coverage for prior health conditions; continued withdrawal of coverage in the middle of serious medical emergencies; continued annual and lifetime limits on benefits; continued high costs for medication; and continuation of the huge “doughnut holes” for elderly Medicare recipients. Yes—it would be nice to let them continue in the morass we presently have, while the rest of us got decent coverage under a new national health care plan.

Unfortunately, it will not work that way. If health care reform goes down to defeat all of us, not just the screamers, will lose.

If health care reform with a public option is passed, the screamers will say: “We fought the good fight, but now that it is possible to get health insurance at lower cost, with coverage for prior conditions, no annual or lifetime limits, and preventive medical coverage for things like pap smears, colonoscopies, mammograms, chest X-Rays, PSA tests, and blood tests, why not take advantage of it”? They will break their necks signing-up for the public option, and a few years down the road they will fight to keep their new governmental health coverage from being diminished.

But sadly, if health care reform is defeated, thousands of people will continue to die from lack of health insurance. It is estimated that at least 18,000 people die every year because of lack of health insurance. Millions of people who have lost their jobs during the Bush recession will not be able to get health insurance coverage. Millions of seniors will continue to empty their little savings accounts to pay for medications during the “doughnut holes.” Millions of people who have prior medical conditions will be unable to get coverage.

On Wednesday, September 9, President Obama gave a ringing call to America to move ahead with health care reform. He noted that the same kind of people who oppose this reform also opposed Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He demolished some of the outrageous distortions being put-out not only by talk radio and Fox News hosts, but also by Republican politicians.

While the President spoke, the Republicans sat stonily. Our local guy, House Minority Gasbag John Boehner, looked like a well-tanned corpse. The crude and ill mannered outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina represented not only the people of that state and its leaders, Senator DeMint and Governor Sanford, but also the attitude of the Republicans in Congress who have allowed their party to be seized by ultra conservatives

Meanwhile the Republican senators and congressmen who plan to vote against health care reform will go on living under the umbrella of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP); the finest health insurance benefits available anywhere. During President Obama’s speech on health care reform, he called for compromise, but those Republicans are not the least bit interested in compromise.

For the ordinary citizens who opposed health care reform because of their concern with other issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, guns, immigration, gay rights, and the president’s race, it is a case of biting off your nose to spite your face. They will get what they deserve if health care reform goes down to defeat. For the senators and congressmen who vote against health care reform, their health insurance should be taken away.