Americans do not like to dwell on subjects, especially of a political nature, for any length of time. Health Care reform was excruciatingly discussed and debated even the processes, remember reconciliation, for almost a year and a half. Now with everyone having agreed on only one conclusion about the midterm 2010 elections, to wit: the economy caused voters to want change, the Republicans have decided to spend this week on a repeal of the Health Care Reform Law. There is much of that law which I think could have been stronger. In fact Health Care for all became Health Insurance for All. There are some parts of the Law that most people agree with, e.g. allowing children to remain on family plans until age 26 and ending the exclusions due to preexisting conditions. But the Republicans, catering to their Tea Party base, are adopting a simple one page repeal. Then they claim they will address the specific issues. Good luck -- they didn’t address any of them when they controlled every branch of government from 2001-2006.
And when it comes to process -- they repeal with the same no amendments rule they blasted the Democrats for using when they repassed the original Senate version
This is a great country - the greatest free society on the planet. And we have good health care if you can afford it or afford insurance. I believe access to that health care should be a right and as a practical matter it is since anyone can get treatment in an emergency room. I also believe it should be a responsibility to society to get insurance if you can find and afford it so you reduce the fiscal burden of your health care on the entire community. That’s what the Health Care Reform bill tries to do. We should allow it and all its’ component parts to take effect and then revise and reform it where needed.
And while we’re revisiting Health Care let’s again focus on end of life care. I lost my wife to lung cancer a few months back. She passed away at home benefiting from Hospice Care provided by Chester Keystone Home Health Services, which her oncologist first informed us of and consulted with us on along with health care directives; and, a Hospice Care specialist also talked with her. I assume between our family health insurance and her Medicare they were reimbursed for those consultations and they should have been. And that is all the end of life provisions/regulations would have done: reimburse physicians for discussing these matters with their patients. It was such a good idea that a Republican Senator from Georgia (Isakson) first introduced it in 2007. Obama put it in his original Health Care reform bill. Then Palin and the right wingers lionized by Fox News siezed on it as a Death Panel. Outright falsehood on their part! A death panel is a body of individuals who decide what and when a terminally ill patient gets care. Nothing about that in the bill or last months proposed regulations. Actually it’s closer to what the Republicans who run the state of Arizona are -- doing denying some Medicaid patients transplants and okaying others.
But, because today we have a politics of anything goes and anything is to be believed, the professionals who know best were ignored and the administration gave up, so the type of counseling my wife received will not be reimbursed by Medicare. Fortunately we live in a country where many physicians will care enough about their patients to discuss these matters with them regardless of eligibility for reimbursement.
But unfortunately we live in a country where are our politics is now dominatedby those who shout the loudest (or tweet the most often). We must hope that ultimately Ronald Reagan’s admonition “Facts are Stubborn Things” will be borne out.
1/17/2011
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