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The day after the passage of reform

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Staff


CHRIS FITZSIMON

The racial epithets, anti-gay slurs and comparisons of President Obama to Hitler by opponents of health care reform have stopped in Washington, at least for now.

The efforts of House Republicans to incite protestors to disrupt the floor debate have also ended. Rep. Steve King has come in from the House balcony and stopped pretending to slap the face of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a poster he was holding up for the crowds with her picture on it.

Many of the same pundits in Raleigh and Washington who predicted that reform would not pass are now preoccupied with what the passage means for the Republicans’ chances to make big gains in Congress in November and what will happen to the Democrats who opposed it.

And the propaganda forces on the right are still misleading the public about what the bill does and doesn’t do. The most prominent right-wing Raleigh think-tanker says insurance premiums will skyrocket as a result of reform, ignoring the fact that they were skyrocketing already and dismissing the analysis by the Congressional Budget Office that the legislation will not increase the costs of employer-based care.

That’s the same market-fundamentalist crusader who received national acclaim on the right for his ridiculous vow to refuse to comply with the law if the House passed it using a parliamentary maneuver. He must be disappointed that the bill passed on a regular House vote instead.

National grand master of Right Wing Avenue Rush Limbaugh told his radio audience Tuesday that America “was hanging by a thread” and was no longer a representative republic. Limbaugh said of the Democrats who passed the health care bill, “We need to defeat these bastards. We need to wipe them out.”

Then he proceeded to complain about provisions that would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or charging them exorbitant premiums they can’t afford.

Protecting insurance company profits is most important in this worldview, not making sure people with a serious illness can afford their treatment. Fundamentally, Limbaugh is furious that everyone may have to share even a small part of the responsibility of taking care of people who need help.

A woman who is diagnosed with breast cancer after she is laid off from her job is on her own. She shouldn’t have been laid off – or diagnosed with breast cancer. Same for a child with leukemia who needs a bone marrow transplant. Her parents should have planned for that.

The vast majority of Americans don’t agree with Limbaugh or his only slightly less-offensive North Carolina counterparts. They know the current system is broken and despite the claims otherwise by the right, they support the health care reform plan that passed the House on Monday once they’re able to make their way through the thicket of lies told about it.

Many of the analyses of the reform bill have emphasized that the bulk of it doesn’t go into effect until 2014. One headline read “Much ado, but only for a few.”

But it’s worth noting as President Obama prepares to sign the bill into law that it will help many people soon.

The folks at the North Carolina Health Access Coalition outlined the changes Monday that are coming in the next six months.

New insurance plans will no longer be able to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Insurance companies will now fully cover many more preventive services and they are barred from placing caps on lifetime benefits.

Parents can cover children up to age 26 as dependents on their family policies and Medicare recipients who reach the coverage gap in 2010 will get a rebate. Small businesses will get a tax credit if they pay for part of their employees’ health care.

There are many other provisions that will help people and businesses afford health care now while preparations are made for the major changes that will cover more than a million people in North Carolina who are currently uninsured.

America is not hanging by a thread. Hardly. America is finally on the road to joining the rest of the industrialized world by developing a system to provide health care for its people. That’s not a reason to protest; that’s a reason to celebrate.

Chris Fitzsimon is executive director of N.C. Policy Watch.

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