Health care–a right not a privilege

Congress Passes Hotly contested bill

Congressional Democrats prevailed in passing sweeping legislation in provide greater health care coverage for Americans. The battle was primarily divided along party lines with all Republicans voting against the bill and a majority of Democrats voting for it. On Tuesday, the president was set to sign the bill into the law of the land.
Still to come this week is further legislation to change some of the provisions of the bill making it more agreeable among senate and house Democrats. Senate Republicans have announced their intention to do everything in their power to block what is know as a reconciliation measure that has been used 22 times previously, although Republicans say never on a piece of legislation of this magnitude.
While the U.S. Senate had passed the bill earlier, again along party lines with 60 Democrat and Independent senators voting in favor and all Republican senators voting against the measure, it had to be approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, which it was Sunday night by a narrow margin. 219 representatives voted in favor with 212 against. Some of those against were Democrats, including Heath Shuler, who represents our 11th Congressional District. While it is difficult to determine just how much support the bill had in this district, it had wide-spread support among the district’s Democrats. A few days prior to the vote, Democratic county chairmen across the district sent a letter to Shuler urging him to support the bill’s passage.
In a press release on Monday, Shuler said he had received thousands of letters, phone calls and e-mails from his constituents. He said it had become clear to him that a majority in the district were in support of health care reform but did not think this bill was the right solution. He said he voted against the bill because he thought congress could do better.
On Monday, I talked with Clay County’s Health Department Director, Janice Patterson to get her take on the new bill as she understood it.
“I think it is a wonderful thing,” Patterson said. Saying she had been in nursing for more than 30 years, she said the provision which would forbid insurance companies from denying coverage of people with pre-existing conditions is very much needed.
“None of us choose to be sick or unhealthy,” she said. “It is a shame when children are born with a medical condition, and their parents can’t get insurance for them unless they are wealthy.”
Patterson said she is also in favor of the prevention portion of the bill, which encourages testing and screening. “It is important to catch things early,” she said. “So they can be treated early. Now the portal of entry form many people who do not have insurance is the emergency room, which throws a heavy burden on hospitals.”
Patterson said she thinks it will be important to provide education to train more doctors and mid- level medical providers: nurses, physician assistants, so people will have improved access for medical help. She said as she understood the bill that it isn’t the perfect solution and will have to be improved upon as time goes by. “At least, it’s a start,” she said. “I think we need to think what is good for everybody, not just for those of us who have the means to provide for our own health care.”
She said really when you think about it most of us are just a day away from finding ourselves in a catastrophic situation if we discover a medical condition that requires expensive medical treatment.
Among other provisions of the bill, there is a provision to extend insurance coverage of children on their parents policy until they reach the age of 26. The bill will require all persons to have insurance so as to provide a larger pool of people including healthy ones to support the cost of those who require medical care. However, that provision of the bill will no come into effect until 2014, when there is expected to be a greater number of doctors and medical personnel trained to proved for increased services. Medical payroll tax on wages will also be increased for those individual taxpayers with earnings of more than $200,000 and for married couples filing jointly whose earnings are greater than $250,000.