| Thousands of people are busing to Washington today to rally for healthcare reform. Forty buses left Pennsylvania filled with activists, union members and people carrying personal horror stories of the nightmares dealing with health insurers. Congress isn't exercising political courage trying to deal with the problems bankrupting the country in regard to access to medical care.
Paying for comprehensive healthcare reform isn't the issue: this is a red herring. Passing HR 676 would pay for itself by redistributing healthcare spending so all Americans are covered. Unfortunately this option isn't even being discussed in DC. The compromise, fallback option to single payer is a public option. Forcing everyone to buy health insurance from private companies is nothing more than making a bad situation worse. The health insurance industry is the biggest problem and forcing all of us to buy insurance is just another huge welfare program for business.
This appraoch has yet to cover everyone anywhere. The poor and working poor still cannot afford to pay a third of their meager incomes for insurance. Anyone thinking a person making minimum wage can afford $374/month for such coverage is insane. This cannot work and is not the answer. Taxing health insurance benefits simply makes working people who already are paying for health care to pay more. This isn't fair either and ignores the elephant in the room: Republicans accepting huge contributions from the insurance industry (many corporate Democrats do also) and giant pharmaceutical company PAC's blocking real reform.
I recorded a compelling story of a woman from the Lehigh Valley telling her story earlier this year. I cannot find the video (it may be on my other computer) and if I do I'll upload it. She will be speaking at the rally in DC today.
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