Healthcare Notes

I must be one of the few who applauds the Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Obama's Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA), according to various members of the GOP. If we take the right-wing seriously, by now most of us should be convinced President Obama is not an American and is hell bent on destroying the country via intrusion of government into our lives, among other things. Phooey!

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor appeared on Morning Joe today to disparage the decision. One of his oft-repeated phrases was "Americans don’t like this bill." Is he speaking for us in general, or just his narrow constituency cluster? Has he – or any other notable Republican – ever gone without health insurance or faced a financial catastrophe because of an illness?

First Thoughts made a good point:

Romney made this argument after the decision: "vote for me because I will repeal the health-care law." But is repeal a realistic outcome? On "Morning Joe," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said that Senate Republicans could do it through reconciliation. But conservative writer David Frum argues that Republicans would no longer have the high political ground; they'd find themselves in the same position Democrats did in 2009-2010. "Suddenly it will be their town halls filled with outraged senior citizens whose benefits are threatened; their incumbencies that will be threatened."

On a related note, many politicians were against the idea of "social insurance" (aka Social Security) when President Franklin Roosevelt introduced a limited form of benefits in the 1930s. Detractors of the program called it "socialism," even though it excluded women and minorities at the time. Can you imagine what would happen if social security benefits were taken away from the American people now? Not only would there be an uprising of epic proportions, it would likely plunge millions of senior citizens into the streets, homeless and living in true abject poverty.

So are we to accept government intrusion only when it suites the collective political agendas of the GOP? How different is the healthcare act from social security, really? And which politicians are lining their pockets with money from insurance companies in order to perpetuate their own greedy schema?

For someone who has been gouged and denied by insurance companies even while paying top-dollar premium and then going without insurance altogether for awhile, I can say having another option is a relief. Medicaid is fine and dandy, but coverage is limited and rather like being part of a nameless and faceless herd. In other words, "take a number" and move on.

Think Progress also makes some good points:

• Four Reasons Why the Court's Decision To Uphold Obamacare Is Good News for the Economy

To rebuff Cantor's claim that "Americans don't like this bill," he does not speak for me. I suspect I'm one of many millions who feels the same way.