{"id":3738,"date":"2010-03-23T10:05:16","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T17:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2010-03-23T21:36:49","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T04:36:49","slug":"hcr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=3738","title":{"rendered":"Reforming Health Care Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I thought the fix was in, that Democrats in congress wouldn’t pass health care reform.\u00a0 But they did.\u00a0 Nancy Pelosi, you go!\u00a0 Have you considered running for president some day?<\/p>\n

Toward the end, the Republican refrain was that passing HCR would hurt Democrats.\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 Everyone loves a winner, and right now congressional Democrats are winners.\u00a0 So maybe now congressional Democrats will be emboldened to start working on the revisions needed to get HCR right.<\/p>\n

During our USAF career, my family and I had what can only be called socialized medical and dental care: military doctors, military facilities, taxpayer-funded, single-payer.\u00a0 When I retired we shifted over to the military’s HMO and dental plans, TriCare and Delta, which are heavily subsidized by taxes: we pay a modest annual fee for what has become, as the gold-plated civilian HMO plans of the past have gone under or become prohibitively expensive, excellent coverage.\u00a0 And we cannot be denied care, ever, for any reason.<\/p>\n

So you might think I’d be all in favor of socialized medicine, and you’d be right.\u00a0 I love my socialized military medical care and wouldn’t trade it for anything.\u00a0 I want everyone to have medical care like mine.\u00a0 I want it to be single-payer, supported by taxes.<\/p>\n

Yes, of course such a plan will cost billions.\u00a0 Yes, of course taxes will have to go up.\u00a0 But will it be cheaper than forcing people to buy their own coverage from private health insurance companies?\u00a0 Oh hell yes, a lot cheaper.<\/p>\n

We need single-payer.\u00a0 What’s the easiest way to get there from here?\u00a0 Expand Medicare to cover everyone.<\/p>\n

Am I less free as a result of receiving socialized health care?\u00a0 Am I less patriotic?\u00a0 Am I less American?\u00a0 Obviously not.<\/p>\n

So come on, Democrats, ignore Republican rhetoric and get busy.\u00a0 You’re on a roll!\u00a0 If you get health care right, you’ll guarantee a Democratic majority in both houses — and a Democratic presidency — for the foreseeable future (which, as I’m sure I don’t need to point out, is exactly why the Republicans fought so hard against this legislation).<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/span> I started this post by saying I thought the fix was in.\u00a0 Actually the fix was<\/em> in, if by “the fix” one means Obama’s refusal to consider single payer and his abandonment of support for a public option.\u00a0 And that needs to change.\u00a0 Now that congressional Democrats have shown (to others, but far more importantly to themselves) that they have spines, maybe they can help Obama grow one too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought the fix was in, that Democrats in congress wouldn’t pass health care reform.\u00a0 But they did.\u00a0 Nancy Pelosi, you go!\u00a0 Have you considered running for president some day? Toward the end, the Republican refrain was that passing HCR would hurt Democrats.\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 Everyone loves a winner, and right now congressional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-politics","category-the-economy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3738"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3742,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions\/3742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}