Healthcare Reform?

So we have the reform bill of the day, though this one seems closer to becoming a reality than any we have had to date. Just what are we getting? Should we be be glad?

The Insurance Industry is happy. They just got a valentine from Harry Reid. He's prepared to load them up with taxpayer money, force the currently uninsured to get coverage with them or face a penalty, block any restriction on what they can charge their customers (I'm not unusual - and I just got a 28% rate increase), and limit competition that a government-run program can give them. Silly me - I thought that insurance reform meant improvements on our behalf.

The tradeoff? They have to cover pre-existing conditions. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but the anecdotal examples of PE conditions that you've heard, while horrific, represent a tiny fraction of claims, and will be massively offset to the industry by all of the new bodies they'll be getting as they are forced to choose between coverage by one of these profit machines or pay the penalty.

Oh yes, there will also be a third choice - that of a public option. Okay, it's better than the ridiculous trigger approach so popular with the irrelevant Olympia Snowe. But it still won't kick in until 2013 at the earliest, meaning that there's plenty of time for it to be gutted by Republicans and Insurance industry whores like Max Baucus.

Then, individual states will have the option of refusing it! Got to admit, it could be fun watching Republican governors twist themselves into knots, turning it down while their in-state medical system chokes on the uninsured.

Which brings me to another point. This bill is expected to cover some 11 million folks who are currently not covered. What about the other 36 million? Are you kidding me?

OK, I'm an optimistic kind to guy. I want to believe that if we put in some kind of healthcare reform, any reform, that it's a foot in the door. Maybe the Insurance companies will not continue to pour in hundreds of millions of dollars trying to prevent additional reform. Maybe the public option will be successful and millions of other Americans will insist that they be allowed to give it a shot, generating so much political pressure that it will have to be opened up to everyone. Maybe Republicans and blue dogs will sense that political tides and history are against them and find some other cause to wreck.

But right now, the choice is yours - is this reform bill a shit sandwich, or a better-looking shit sandwich?