Can the Democrats Deliver on Health Care?

I’ve been preoccupied with the health care reform issue for about the past month or so.  I’ve followed the debate in the media and online, blogged, tweeted, written to Congress people, and signed petitions.  I’ve been fired up since that Sunday when Health and Social Service Secretary Kathleen Sibelius hinted that  co-ops might be an acceptable substitute for the public option.

Sorry that won’t work for me.  I would actually prefer a single payer system such as they have in Canada, or some other public system that other civilized developed countries provide for their citizens.  But being a practical person, I realize that single payer doesn’t stand much of a chance here.  The public option was supposed to be the compromise.  Then came the word that won’t work because the Republicans won’t support it, so it must be watered down to co-ops.   Co-ops would be a risky experiment that will waste more time and unfortunately people’s lives.

I don’t consider myself to be a political activist.  At my age there are plenty of other ways I would rather spend my time, and I’m getting tired of filling out email forms on government websites.  I have been one of those so-called “reliable”  faithful Democratic voters.  The Democrats have been talking health care forever, only the reason they could never provide us with health care they said was the Republicans controlling either the Presidency or one or the other house of Congress.  Well now the Democrats are running the whole show, so it’s time to deliver.  No more whining and hand-wringing about the Republicans.  If they can’t make good on their promises this time, this is one voter who will start staying home.

Of course, we all know the Democrats never like to “miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”  Too many of them have been out to lunch with the health industry lobbyi$t$.  It has even been reported that a health insurance lobbyist actually wrote the Baucus bill.

Case in point, this morning’s story on NPR by Peter Overby, “Who’s Representing the Uninsured on Capitol Hill?” Overby talks about Mike Ross, a “blue dog Democrat”  Congressman from Arkansas, who is opposed to the public option, and who coincidentally also just recently received over $100,000 for his campaign committee and a PAC that he operates from, guess who, the health care industry.

Overby then quotes one of Ross’s constituents at a town hall meeting in his district, “Many of those individuals who would need a public health care option are those who are not likely to be able to take two hours out of their day to go to a public event like that town hall,” says Kevin Motl, a history professor at Ouachita Baptist University who attended the meeting. “They were too busy earning hourly wages and trying to keep roofs above their children’s heads. Those voices are not going to be present in that discourse.”

That’s exactly what’s bothering me these days.  While people without health insurance are at work or standing in the unemployment line, the Senate and Congress are out to lunch with the in$urance industry lobby.  Literally.