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If it means moving forward, I'll compromise.
Author: Raine    Date: 12/21/2009 13:25:22

After much wrangling, it was done. in the wee hours of the morning, on a snowy Sunday Monday, we defeated the GOP filibuster. HCR is not dead. It will now go to a joint committee between the House and the Senate, where the bill will be merged and a final vote taken.

The bill will be merged, and there will be a vote, and despite what many people think, it is historic. I have mentioned a fellow HCR reform activist a few times on this blog in the past few months named Karoli. She was one of the people who helped us form HealthCareReformMyths.org -- she knows the health care industry, she has tirelessly read these bills, one after the other, re-write after re-write. She, like me, did not like what the senate bill did but also saw what was good in it, much like Senator Sanders. She writes:
Under the Senate bill, our premium costs would be $542/month. Cost-sharing would be a maximum of $719/month, assuming the maximums were reached, or $1,261/month.

We currently pay $750/month for medications and supplies just for the diabetes. We pay an additional $275/month for doctor visits. This is for one person in our family. That’s $1,025/month, which is less than the $1,261.

What do I get for that additional $236/month? Here are some things:

• If my husband feels chest discomfort, he can go to the doctor and get a physical, including a stress test, a non-stress test, and cholesterol tests for free.

• My daughter and I can see an OB/GYN without extra cost.

• If my husband has a heart attack and needs bypass surgery, we can get that surgery without paying more than the maximum of $1261/month or $14,477.00

• Our son could receive treatment from an endocrinologist and dermatologist to manage the effects of two conditions that leave him better, but less than 100%

• I could get a mammogram. If they found a lump, I could get it diagnosed and treated. As it stands today, I haven’t done that because we would have to sell our home and use the after-tax proceeds to pay for medical care.

• Our out-of-pocket for medications drops to about $125/month which counts toward the cost-sharing maximum.

Those are the benefits I get for that extra $236/month. They are not insignificant.

What that $236 buys us is the security that we won’t lose our home, and we won’t be dropped because we got sick, and that for the next few years until both of us are eligible for Medicare we have a safety net.
For people like Karoli (and others like her), these truly are not insignificant changes, and despite the extra costs her family will see, the savings are tremendous. Hopefully we will see more cost saving measures in the merged bill, and we will see it become law, but this is a very clear example of how critical passing Health Care reform is for many people in this country.

The Senate bill is just as good as it is horrendous and there are a lot of shades in between, but this is what we have, and the alternative is literally nothing.

As much as many hate to hear it, politics is about compromise, and getting as far as we did is a miracle in this political climate in these very corporate times. When Bill Clinton came into office, he refused to do so, and health care reform came to a screeching halt for nearly 15 years. Under the GOP majority after that year, there were a few exceptions, like partial privatization of Medicare, the donut hole, and disallowing the government to negotiate drug prices. They tried to kill S-Chip altogether. Believe me, killing health care at the time helped the Gingrich Republicans gain control in both the house and the senate for the first time since the Truman administration, in part because the people who elected Bill Clinton -- with the mandate to change health care, stayed at home. The base stayed at home because they were angry. That is what the GOP wanted then, and they are hoping for it again.

I ask that while many are pissed at this whole debacle, they take a bigger look at things, and know that sometimes the biggest things are not always the best, because with that we stand to lose it all. We have made history, we defeated the filibuster, and we are going to get health care reform. We have shown that We can and will improve on it, just as we did with S-Chip, but we can only do so by moving forward, even if it is at a snail's pace. The cost of no compromise might cost us everything. That's not a gamble I want to take.

&
Raine
 

24 comments (Latest Comment: 12/21/2009 21:56:44 by livingonli)
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