Health Care Woes

You may have heard a few things this year about the future of health care. Congress has heard a lot as well, particularly from the insurance lobby. Already this year, the insurance lobby has given over four million dollars to congressional leaders. The insurance lobby has given over one and a half million dollars to Senator Max Baucus D-Montana, the senate finance committee chairman, who's health care bill garnered the most publicity over this past summer. Of course when Baucus's bill left the finance committee it had no public option. At this point we should remind everyone that the current members of the Senate finance committee combind have recieved over forty seven million dollars from the insurance lobby this decade alone. So, is it any surprise that the public option is being quietly discarded? From the start, a single payer system which had humble beginnings in House Resolution 3200, was shut out, and H.R. 3200 killed before it ever got started. Now the public option is struggling to hold on. It makes sense however, because the insurance lobby has an unlimited arsenal it seems of commercials, press releases and drafted public statements for Democrats and Republicans that craft the language of both sides of the debate. In fact one of the chief memebers of Max Baucus' staff is Liz Fowler who could be seen huddled behind him on CSPAN during the finance committee's mark ups on it's version of the health care bill. Liz Fowler is a former VP of public policy at Wellpoint Insurance, which happens to be the nation's largest insurance company. As an uninsured American with a pre-existing condition this kind of activity is enough to make you twice as sick. That's why I have written my legislators as well as Max Baucus to inform him that the masses are not as in the dark as he might hope or think. I encourage anyone who reads this and cares about our future to do the same.