In America’s convoluted, inequitable health care system, there are many millions of Americans who are highly dependent upon health care coverage provided by either Obamacare or Medicaid programs.
And while many of them are sick with a wide variety of afflictions there are other Americans who are the sickest of all. They are the Republicans in the Congress who are absolutely determined to implement a plan that would take away the medical coverage from up to 32 million Americans currently covered by Obamacare and Medicaid by the year 2026.
What Republicans are doing in both the House and the Senate is pure treachery, a betrayal of the American people; incomprehensible, reprehensible actions and behavior. Of all the many destructive actions that Republicans have taken against the people of this country in recent times this has to be at the top of the list; about as low as they can get.
Initially, House Republicans passed a plan that Sen. Bernie Sanders and others called disastrous. Then their cohorts in the Senate came up with their own plan which was just as bad. Legislation covering such a totally misguided plan might have been approved in the Senate were it not for three Senators, all female by the way, who stepped forward and said they could not, in good conscience, vote for a plan that would be so very harmful to many millions of Americans.
These three exemplary individuals were Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Shelley Moore Capito. When GOP majority leader Mitch McConnell was ready to initiate a vote on a motion to proceed on a repeal of the ACA without a replacement, these courageous senators did the right thing; they stood up for the people of America rather than their own political party.
What is astounding is that the large majority of the Senate Republicans were entirely comfortable with voting yes on this terrible plan even though they knew that it would o great harm to their fellow Americans. Take about extreme selfishness; all of them and their families are provided with excellent medical coverage that is obtained through Obamacare D.C. exchanges. Why worry about others?
Recently, on a cable news show,, a GOP senator was asked this question; if there are problems with the availability of insurance exchanges in various states, why not just let these people go through the DC exchanges? The senator said something to the effect of, “Hey, maybe that’s something we should do and we’ll have to look into it.” Well, let’s not hold our breath because that’s never going to happen.
Right now this Congress is in a state of chaos and the GOP plan to destroy Obamacare may have died of self-inflicted wounds. But as many observers have noted, this political zombie keeps coming back from the dead and McConnell apparently can’t take no for an answer.
So we’ll have to wait and see what happens next. Now, even if this plan is actually dead and tabled, I believe that it will come back to haunt the Republicans because of the cruel manner in which they tried to take medical coverage away from up to 32 million Americans. Maybe Republicans would do well to begin writing their political obituaries in advance of the next elections.
Let’s say that, at some time in the future, the Congress, whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats, gets serious about developing a really effective health care system that covers every American. How should this be done – by some 12 senators who know little to nothing about the medical and insurance sectors, meeting behind closed doors?
Heavens no! The right way to do this is to create a health care action group made up of the best minds in the medical field. Doctors, hospital administrators, representatives of major insurance companies, and representatives from each of the major U.S. medical systems now operating – Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, the private insurance sector and the VA, the Veterans Administration.
Senators would only be present as observers, taking notes to be used in creating necessary legislation. With this cadre of experts, the chances of coming up with a really effective system would be excellent. The main objective should be to create a system to cover all Americans.
Probably the best and easiest path to a really effective system would be to extend the current Medicare system to all Americans. Medicare has its problems but it’s a good system and its shortcomings can easily be fixed.
Besides examining the Medicare system to see how it could become America’s primary system of health care these experts could also study the many very effective health care systems that have been in operation for many years in Europe proper and Scandinavia. Almost every one of them has a system that covers all citizens. They all strongly believe that all their citizens have a right to have medical coverage.
Of course, these systems are not perfect; they have their problems and shortcomings. In some countries, people have to wait for a time before getting treatment, in particular, for elective treatment or surgery. However, very necessary and serious conditions get top priority.
The life expectancy in most all those countries is greater than America’s where, in world rankings, this country ranks 27th. And not only that but these Euro systems’ overall costs are about one-half to two-thirds of those in America.
There are a lot of people in our country who have no real knowledge of how Euro systems work and yet strongly criticize them; most of them are ignorant politicians who, instead, should aim their criticisms at America’s health care systems, all five of them, that have a great many problems, are extremely costly, have mountains of paperwork, and a great deal of waste.
Does anyone hear Europeans bitterly complaining about their systems and how they object to paying high taxes to fund them? Do we hear that their systems are failing and that there is massive turmoil and debate in their governments about their effectiveness, as is the case here in America? Absolutely not, because the vast majority of these people are very pleased with the health care they receive.
Without a doubt, one of the biggest problem with premiums constantly increasing in the U.S. is due to the obscene profits of the insurance companies and the salaries, perks, and pensions that their CEO’s receive. America will never have an effective health care system unless the profit factor is brought under reasonable control.
And as Americans watch this bizarre circus in Congress go on and on they need to ask themselves: what kind of Americans would stoop so low as to do this treachery to their fellow Americans? What kind of human beings would do this to their fellow human beings?
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