That the GOP positioning on health care reform is dishonest may be expected. It's politics after all. What's more infuriating is that a number of Democrats will join Republicans to likely defeat any real and substantive changes to our completely screwed up heath care system.
Sadly, it seems more and more likely that, at the end of this big debate on health care reform, Americans will have a system that looks an awful lot like the current system; still managed by big, private insurance companies that have made oh so sincere public pledges to cut costs and insure more people. And Congress will, no doubt, pat themselves on the back for all the heavy lifting they've done to reform the system. No debate on single payer. No public plan. Essentially, business as usual with some tough love (more love, less tough) for the private insurers.
What gets lost in the whole debate in Congress are the private stories of the American health care system.
How about this? A quarter of American households are struggling to pay their health insurance premiums. Or this; 40% of Americans expect to delay health care treatments this summer. Or this; nearly 20% of American households reported postponing or delaying health care over the past year. (Note: an interesting statistic from the survey indicates the group least likely to be delaying heath care treatments are those born prior to 1946. In other words, Medicare patients. In other words, the recipients of a single payer approach to health care.)
It may be popular for health care opponents in Congress to express their faux concern over health care rationing that would come with government involvement, but one need only look at the current system to see that rationing is already occurring.
And when members of Congress come on TV and refer to the American health care system as the greatest in the world and warn of the dangers of allowing the government to step in and act as an arbiter in health care decisions, think about Robin Beaton.
The real tragedy is that Ms. Beaton's story isn't unique. The real tragedy is that Congress will likely pass a health care reform package that is more about appeasing private insurance companies, fighting dumb old political battles than it is about Robin Beaton. Or you. Or me.
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