It's HEALTHy to CARE about the TRUTH

Today, health care reform passed in the House of the Representatives at the expense of low-income women’s reproductive rights and a new debate on what constitutes Constitutionality.

Woot?

Of course, U.S. Democrats, pseudo-liberals and leftist centrists were likely thrilled with the most recent step toward advancing health care reform – a step that opens the gateways to insurance for over 30 million Americans.

However, even though health care insurance industries soon won’t be able to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions, there are still an assortment of problems to untangle.

Most notably:

1. This bill literally passed on the backs of poor women everywhere. Rep. Stupak of Michigan, a fierce “blue dog” Democrat opposed to legal abortion, made a deal with President Obama that the Commander-in-Chief would send an executive order to ban all federal dollars for funding abortions. The deal was done to convince central Democrats to vote in favor of the bill.

Essentially, this means any sort of insurance plan rooted in federal funding or public assistance (the kind of plans needed for the millions of Americans who are unemployed, underpaid, or undervalued), is not going to pay for a woman who wishes to exercise her reproductive rights.

2. Obama and Democrats alike have repeated again and again that this reform needed to happen now (and let’s face it, at the death toll our country keeps in terms of the uninsured sick, there is an impetus to act as quickly as possible).

Regrettably, the Democrats achieved this by claiming all ideas regarding reform have been brought to the table, a mildly effective strategy used to mute some of the Republican pushback. Unfortunately, this means that all of the previous ideas unfairly discussed or ignored entirely – like single-payer systems and public options – are now nothing but ideas of the past...

To be fair, democratic, and authentically free, the U.S. needs a single-payer system, a national insurance plan in which the government does NOT control your doctors or health, but simply funds it. Single-payer systems account for socioeconomic status, racial and gender injustices and allow Americans to work together to keep each other alive and healthy. This is not an ignoble notion.

I know, the GOP already love calling "Obamacare" a socialist endeavor, but it’s certainly not. Authentic socialist health care, like the kind we see in single-payers systems, would actually be a healthy option that favors community involvement and real democracy. It would also be cheaper and dissolve the greedy, profit-centric insurance industries who have made our health a commodity worth 1/6 of the economy.

Potential positive implications aside, thanks to the dualistic debating America knows well, we will only see mild reform with less of an impact than what this country truly needs.

And as if a few post-debate headaches weren't bad enough, the Republicans have vowed to fight the Constitutionality of this reform, because apparently it violates that Constitution (something that doesn't seem important under marriage equality debates). They believe we cannot mandate health insurance, even though the right to life is grossly violated when the only way a sick family can live is through thousands of dollars of debt and wasted tax dollars

I wish real reform had passed, but at least some commendable legislation is on its way. Let’s not get too excited, however, America. We have a loooong way to go. Support coalitions of multiple parties so more widespread ideologies can be represented in our Congress! The health care debate is far from its end!

To learn more about a single-payer system and what its social and economic benefits are, visit: http://www.pnhp.org/