Diary of a Wimpy Health Care Bill by Ross Ann DeMoro, Director, National Nurses United, AFL-CIO

[Better Believe It]

Diary of a Wimpy Health Care Bill
By Rose Ann DeMoro
Executive Director, National Nurses United, AFL-CIO and California Nurses Association
March 23, 2010

Passage of President Obama's healthcare bill proves that Congress can enact comprehensive social legislation in the face of virulent rightwing opposition. Now that we have an insurance bill, can we move on to healthcare reform?

As an organization of registered nurses, we have an obligation to provide an honest assessment, as nurses must do every hour of every day. The legislation fails to deliver on the promise of a single standard of excellence in care for all and instead makes piecemeal adjustments to the current privatized, for-profit healthcare behemoth.

When all the boasts fade, comparing the bill to Social Security and Medicare, probably intended to mollify liberal supporters following repeated concessions to the healthcare industry and conservative Democrats, a sobering reality will probably set in.

For its part, the administration and its major supporters shut out advocates of more far reaching reform, while vilifying critics on the left.

Both trends are troubling for democracy, as is the pervasive corruption of corporate lobbying that so clearly influenced the language of the bill. Insurers, drug companies, and other corporate lobbyists shattered all records for federal influence peddling and were rewarded with a bill that largely protected their interests, along with a Supreme Court ruling that will allow corporations, including the health care industry, to spend unlimited sums in federal elections.

Rightwing opponents fought as hard to block this legislation as they would have against a Medicare for all plan. As more Americans recognize the bill does not resemble the distortions peddled by the right, and become disappointed by their rising medical bills and ongoing fights with insurers for needed care, there will be new opportunity to press the case for real reform. Next time, let's get it done right.

Please read the nurses organization full assessment of the health insurance industry bill at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rose-ann-demoro/diary-of-a-wimpy-healthca_b_510706.html?view=screen


Rose Ann DeMoro

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. I would read that but the giant graphic makes it too hard to do so

I don't like scrolling in two directions just to read a post.

[Better Believe It]

3. Just click on the link. Here it is!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rose-ann-demoro/diary-of-a-wimpy-healthca_b_510706.html?view=screen

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. Thanks

I didn't even see the link in the OP. Using a phone here... Anyway, yup, the articles pretty much hits the nail on the head.

[zipplewrath]

2. Yup, health insurance reform, not health care

Yet another author pointing out the obvious.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Nice to see my unprofessional, ignorant opinion

mirrored by people who KNOW what they are talking about.

There will be a lot of unhappy people a couple years down the road, when they find out what this 'reform' actually did and, more importantly, what it DIDN'T do.

[Better Believe It]

6. Right! What the hell do they know about health care? They are only nurses!

[Better Believe It]

7. Kick