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House passes health insurance reform as Republicans just say no
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Photo: AP/Alex Brandon
Last Saturday night, in a historic vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act. The vote was 220-215, with all but one Republicans voting “no.” Republicans are complaining that America cannot afford comprehensive health insurance reform as proposed by the Democrats. In truth, we cannot afford not to have substantial health insurance reform. Consider the following:
The hidden tax
Approximately 46 million Americans have no health insurance. When they get sick, many of them go to hospital emergency rooms where they are usually treated for free or nearly free. But it’s not free for the rest of us. We pay those many billions in medical costs for the uninsured. It is a tax of $1,000 a year in increased premiums for insured families, according to Families USA. Moreover, those costs are maximized, as many of those with no insurance go without preventive care that could spot health problems early on, until such problems become very costly medical crises.
The unsustainable status quo
A recent Harvard study concluded that 45,000 people die each year because they have no health insurance. Fort those with insurance, it isn't much better. Health insurance premium costs, which are already staggering, keep rising. For example, the price of employer-sponsored premiums is rising four times faster than the rate of inflation. This is hardly a surprise, given that health insurance companies, alone except for Major League Baseball, were given an exemption from federal antitrust laws and, surprise surprise, have developed into monopolies and near-monopolies. As a result, the majority of bankruptcies in the U.S. are now due to medical bills. And in addition to clobbering us with staggering costs, the health insurance companies, as only those with substantial market power could do, deny coverage due to “preexisting conditions,” the very conditions for which people need coverage. Other folks with insurance, for which they have dutifully paid their premiums all along, are summarily tossed out when they get sick and need coverage most. This happened to 2,330 Californians at the hands of Wellpoint/Anthem Blue Cross of California. Additionally, "death panels" run by insurance company bureaucrats make allegedly profit-based decisions to deny coverage, which sometimes result in the deaths of their customers.
The hypocrisy
The same Republicans who have suddenly found religion about government spending under a Democratic administration controlled Congress during 6 of George W. Bush’s 8 years as President, and, in the words of Republican Senator John McCain, “spent money like a drunken sailor.” This includes George W. Bush’s Iraq War, which had cost nearly $700 billion through 2008 (and, by the time the U.S. leaves Iraq, will probably cost more than the 10 year gross price tag for the Affordable Health Care for America Act). The only logical principle which would explain this sudden 180 degree turn on spending is that the Republicans do not like it when they do not control the purse strings.
At this time of economic peril and an unsustainable health insurance regime, for Republicans to place party politics above working to help fix the country's ills is something we can ill afford.
© 2009 Matthew Emmer -- All Rights Reserved
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