11.08.2010

Obamacare's Potential To Unite Seemingly Divergent Resistance

One of the main themes in the Tea Party's recent campaign was to resist Obamacare. Since election night i've heard various Republicans and Tea Partiers explain that they don't have pass legislation to stop it, all they have to do is to defund it by winning a majority vote in the House to do so. It's highly probable that, no matter how much support that kinda sentiment might have, the Rebublicans of all stripes will be bought off with defense contracts to their districts or some other combination of bribery and coercion. They are politicians and like most all politicians their first priority will be their own re-election. But maybe not, we'll see.

After living these last 41 years up here in Canuckistan i've come to know and love the Canadian Healthcare System, its not perfect but it sure is a lot better than either the existing US model or Obamacare. Up here folks don't lose their homes or their life savings because they can't afford access to health professionals. Up here folks can get basic preventative care which often results in their small issues not evolving into huge ones. Under the present US model many folks get zero access to healthcare until things digress to emergency status and they are wheeled into an emergengy room where they are examined and treated for their now hugely expensive problems. Those huge costs, that earlier-with preventative care-mighta been avoidable, are paid for by the state. The state gets the funds to pay its bills from the taxpayer via taxes that are mostly paid by the more well off. The results are that the rich pay for the poor's healthcare-sounds like socialism to me eh-and they pay far more than they had to.

Obama ran for office promising 'Change' in healthcare, and a lotta other stuff. He promised he'd never sign a bill that didn't contain a public option, he promised huge reform of the prescription drug laws that would allow Americans far easier access to generics, would allow groups to negotiate lower prices with Big Pharma and, if all that failed, would allow individual Americans the freedom to go abroad to have their prescriptions filled in places that did negotiate with the drug company goons. Of course, we now know that Obama was, at the same time he was giving speeches promising the opposite, himself negotiating with Big Pharma and the health insurance industry behind closed doors for huge dontions to his campaign-and who knows what else-in exchange for not doing what he was publicly promising. Just another politician-a liar-or both?

So, in my opinion, defunding Obamacare is a big winner for everybody. It isn't healthcare reform, it isn't healthcare insurance reform, but is a massive transfer of money from 'we the people' to the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations. This issue can be another uniting cause around the circle of the political spectrum. By stopping this insanity called Obamacare in its tracks there'd be an oppurtunity to start again, to open a real debate, to perhaps come up with big solutions to these big problems. 'We The People' deserve better.