Get ready for crummy, rationed health care

Congressional Democrats on Friday have given “reconciliation” protection to the universal health care provisions of the 2010 budget. That delightful sounding word means the kiss of death for any open, fair and honest debate over the wisdom of universal health care.

Overhauling the nation’s health-care system is a top Obama goal, and Democrats in the House and Senate are determined to begin moving legislation this summer. But the initiative is certain to be contentious: It would come with a big price tag and a possible mandate that everyone who can afford health insurance must buy it.

The bill will easily pass in the House, but, in the Senate the rules are different.  There, the bill could be filibustered, thus effectively killing it.  To overcome a filibuster, 60 votes are needed, and, Democrats in the Senate account for 58 seats.  However, with the “reconciliation” tag placed on the health care portion of the bill, only 51 votes are needed.  As a result, no more than 51 people are necessary to enact a health care plan affecting over 300 million people in this country.  One would think that on an issue of this importance Congress would want to listen to everyone’s views, but, as those views don’t always agree with the President’s wishes, apparently it is better to stifle them.  Why wouldn’t Congress want debate on something as important as this?  You won’t believe the answer.

The health-care protection [i.e. reconciliation] would be at the heart of a compromise version of the fiscal 2010 budget, which Democratic leaders in the House and Senate hope to push through both chambers early next week. That would provide Mr. Obama with a symbolic victory in time to mark his 100th day in office Wednesday.[emphasis supplied]

Are you kidding me?  A plan that hasn’t worked anywhere in the world, including in Massachusetts, that is dangerous to patients, that will sound the death knell for private health insurance in this country, that will inevitably lead not only to rationing of health care, but also to a drop off in new medical technology and  treatments, and, which we can’t afford no matter how high we raise taxes, is being treated by members of Congress as if it were some kind of a “birthday” present for our President?

Could Congress be any more pathetic if it tried?

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

4 Comments

  1. Dom Rosa on April 27, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    The time has come for self-styled conservatives to shift from Edmund Burke to Otto von Bismarck. When Bismarck abandoned the dogmas of laissez-faire economics, he appropriated components of the Social Democratic platform and sponsored the landmark social legislation that was passed by the Reichstag (a friend gave me the German names of these laws):

    Krankenversicherungsgesetz (1883) [Sickness Insurance Act]

    Unfallversicherungsgesetz (1884) [Accident Insurance Act]

    Alters-und Invaliditätsversicherungsgesetz (1889) [Old Age and Disability Pension Act]

    A national health insurance plan was part of the National Progressive (Bull Moose) Party platform in 1912. It was also advocated by Harry Truman in 1947. The failure to implement such a plan has led to the debacle that we face today.



  2. Dom Rosa on April 28, 2009 at 3:16 am

    As a follow-up to my previous message, I would recommend the March 31, 2009 PBS FRONTLINE broadcast "Sick Around America," which examined our broken health care system and the need for a fundamental overhaul. This was followed by a rebroadcast of "Sick Around the World: Five Capitalist Countries and how they do it," which examined the national health care systems in Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and Taiwan. In Switzerland, the Conservative Party opposed this plan when it was created in the early 1990s by the Social Democratic Party. Today the Conservative Party is in power and has switched from opposing to supporting this plan.  Taiwan is the newest country to set up such a plan, by selecting suitable features from all the other plans. Every citizen has a "smart card," and it is completely paperless. More information about these broadcasts ia available on the PBS/Frontline web site.



    • Steve McGough on April 28, 2009 at 4:00 am

      @Dom Rosa – note the terms of use. Keep your comments very short and to the point. Maximum of 75 words or less. Your posts above are more like blog posts instead of simply comments on the post. Short comments with links are preferred here. Thanks.



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