For the Uninsured, a Ray of Hope

[babylonsister]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/22/at_the_window_hope_99633.html

For the Uninsured, a Ray of Hope
By Richard Cohen


From the 14th floor of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, I could look across the East River to much of Brooklyn and Queens. Behind me in the hospital bed was the woman I love, who was sick, very sick, attended by some remarkable doctors (including her own, indomitable daughter), and I would sometimes drift to the window and look out over a city with several million people and wonder: What do they do? What do they do if they have no health insurance?

That question has stuck with me. There have been several more hospital stays and many more to the doctor and so I am, in a very painful way, an expert of sorts on the American health care system. It is an inelegant monstrosity, a beast that consumes lives and money and makes some people rich and many more poor.

It is a quintessentially American operation, created out of pragmatism and prejudice -- a belief in what works and as deep a belief that the government can make nothing work. It is the product of tiny minds, some of them in Congress, and they have now set about improving the system in a way that exhausts Washington's store of cliches -- herding cats, making sausage and the rest.

snip//

I read the newspaper columns and listen to the television commentary of people who want to kill the health care bill -- and often I nod my head in agreement at some of the points they make. But the liberals who insist on a perfect bill or nothing, the ones who are so bereaved at the death of the public option or so furious that abortion will not be covered that they would prefer no bill at all, ought to come to the window with me.

Behold the uninsured. Look at them in their terror. See their faces as they are denied coverage for pre-existing conditions or their look of despair because they cannot afford any insurance at all. Watch them ignore symptoms of sickness, pass up examinations or wait, often for hours and hours, for free medical services. Being sick, really sick -- as the woman I love recently was -- is indescribably awful. To be both poor and sick -- is there anything worse?

This health care bill is far from perfect. In some respects it is truly ugly. But from my old perch on the 14th floor of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, as I recall the terrible fright of a terrible illness, this bill looks as pretty as hope. It is a start.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. I accept that it is the best we will get from this Congress and this President

and that midterm losses make the idea of getting anything better in the short term highly unlikely. Personally, I will take the win and then work very hard to reform and improve the reform.

I also will make single payer my lifelong goal to see before I cash in my chips.

[niceypoo]

13. The bill embeds private insurance

Good luck dislodging it

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

18. I personally think the bill sucks, is a big disappointment, has revealed the underbelly

of our system and has opened the President to charges of hypocrisy and double dealing. I have pretty much posted everything that I could possibly post while it looked like there might be a chance for some change of the bill. And I think that some blogger outrage has helped a tiny little bit - it looks like they've been shamed out of annual caps and it appears that the White House is well aware that their duplicity in their dealings with Pharma is now pretty much right out there.

But I still think it's the best we will get for now. Although I think we run a good chance of the newly elected Republicans repealing most of this bill anyway when they get in due to the many obvious flaws. But it may save people. It may save some children's lives. It may help some American families.

Dems fought Dems to get the least of all possible worlds. Sad. We're gonna get our asses kicked once everyone figures it all out.

[NJmaverick]

2. This is what health care reform is supposed to be all about

not about destroying insurance companies

[Captain Hilts]

5. Most of my life I've gotten healthcare without insurance companies: US military and Ontario. nt

[babylonsister]

14. I hope and imagine you consider yourself one of the lucky ones.

When/while I have Tricare, I'm very grateful for it. That's about to end.

[Captain Hilts]

17. Yes. But both ended for me. I've been uninsured for 8 years. nt

[ipaint]

6. Yes reigning in the insurance industry to the point

where they are relegated to only offering vanity plans to the rich is what's wrong with every other country with a form universal care for it's citizens. We, driven by our superior american exceptionalism, are now in the forefront of doing what every other country with healthy citizens hasn't, letting the for profits be permanently in charge of our health care access. Brilliant.

How could anyone even think about destroying our insurance company overlords.

:sarcasm:

[girl gone mad]

7. +1

If this is the answer, why isn't any other industrialized country with lower costs and better outcomes than ours already doing it?

[NJmaverick]

8. Having been in management and other situations, I have learned that life is often about priorities

As such I have one hard and fast rule- PEOPLE COME BEFORE THINGS


Never stray from that rule and you should consider its worth.


PS- I have no need to try and pump myself up with sarcasm, so no silly red rain for me.

[ipaint]

11. Are corporations Things? Oops, Of course not they are citizens.

How silly of me.

[NJmaverick]

12. You are ignoring my point

Why?

[cali]

15. no, this isn't what health care is supposed to be all about

this is not a grand achievement and it could turn out badly and though maybe it shouldn't be about destroying insurance companies it sure as shit should be about regulating them properly. This legislation does little of that. Hell, it doesn't even revoke their privileged exemption from anti-trust laws.

[TwilightGardener]

3. He sums up the way I feel about the issue, perfectly.

[Honeycombe8]

4. This article misses the whole point. No one NEEDS ins. They NEED health care.

Insurance drives the cost of health care up.

Why will more people be covered now? (no, it's not 31 million...the # keeps going up and up, as more and more people express horror at this bill...it started at 300,000...then it was 3,000,000...then it was "millions"....then it was 25 million....then it was 30 million....now it's supposedly 31 million? get real.)

[freddie mertz]

9. Cohen is a well-known reactionary tool. If he's for it, all to the worst.

From Wikipedia (for expedition's sake):

"Some of Cohen's social views are ones attributed to American liberalism, but his political views are often conservative. For example, he is pro-choice and pro-gay rights, and agrees with former Vice President Al Gore on global warming.<2> However, he was originally a supporter of the Iraq War,<3> and has publicly supported the Bush administration in several other high profile instances.

Cohen criticized Stephen Colbert's speech at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner for being "rude" toward the President, but was not critical of President Bush's comments at the dinner in 2004, where Bush jokingly referred to not finding WMD in Iraq.<4> Others point to his condemnation of President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal. Media Matters for America chided Cohen,<5><6><7> for some columns lacking what they see as necessary context and thus exhibiting a double standard favoring conservatives.
In a 2003 Washington Post column, Cohen wrote "the evidence Colin Powell presented to the United Nations — some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail — had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool — or possibly a Frenchman — could conclude otherwise."<8> Cohen also wrote that he believed "the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic" after the events of 9/11.<4> Cohen has since expounded upon his former views of support for the Iraq War, and his later stance against it.<9>

(snip)

He received unflattering public attention in 1987 when it became public knowledge that he was having an affair with Kati Marton, the wife of ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings.<12>
(snip)

In 2007 he criticized the prosecution of Scooter Libby (in the Plame affair criminal investigation) as politically motivated, saying "This is not an entirely trivial matter since government officials should not lie to grand juries, but neither should they be called to account for practicing the dark art of politics. As with sex or real estate, it is often best to keep the lights off." <15> Cohen was in turn criticized by Media Matters for America for factual errors in his presentation, including his contentions that Plame had not been a covert agent, and that "outing" Plame "turns out not to be a crime."<16>

(snip)

In 1998, Cohen was involved in a dispute with editorial aide Devon Spurgeon that was ultimately mediated by Washington Post management.<17> Cohen reportedly asked Ms. Sturgeon questions about "casual sex", told her to "stand up and turn around", and gave her the "silent treatment" for three weeks. Cohen contended that "It was a personality dispute at an office, but it had nothing to do with sexual harassment as the term applies today." Post management concluded that Ms. Spurgeon had been subjected to a "hostile working environment" but not to "sexual harassment" and that Cohen was guilty of "inappropriate behavior." In 2009, Cohen was recognized as the "World's Worst Writer" by Wonkette.<1>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cohen_(Washington_Post_columnist)

[babylonsister]

10. Whaaa! I think it's good for him then that he shows some compassion,

unlike way too many on this board.

[freddie mertz]

16. He's a war-mongering, sexual-harassing, Bush-enabling prick.

You are welcome to him.

[bvar22]

19. A ray of hope for the uninsured ?

I guess, if you can afford the mandated Buy in even with a subsidy,
and can afford to use a policy with high deductibles and co-pays,
and don't really mind being at the mercy of the now permanently enshrined For Profit System.

Its like jail (3-hots and a cot) is better than being on the streets in Winter.
That may be true, but it is not a really a good plan.

I'm getting really tired of this piece of Pro Corporate propaganda:
"But the liberals who insist on a perfect bill or nothing,..."

That is such a bogus Strawman.