I’m sitting in front of my TV, like so many of you, watching the post-HCR vote speechifying. I’m grinning like a fool, tearfully.
James Clyburn just said that Nancy Pelosi got it done through tenacity and compassion. I’ll have more to say about this later, but I think that this combination – which I’ll call radical compassion – is precisely what we need to move forward, and not just in the healthcare arena.
(And speaking of hope: My miniature iris is up, too.)
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
Unfortunately, there’s the stupak part of the bill. And out of curiousity, have you read the arguments against the bill? I have reservations about the bill myself personally.
Jenny,
The Stupak-Fitz amendment is not in any bill passed by the House last night. The Nelson language, which still isn’t what I want it to be, is going to be the language in the bill and it actually is not much more than affirmation of the Hyde Amendment.
Stupak did get an Executive Order from the President reaffirming Hyde, but that basically maintains the status quo on abortion.
The bill definitely has its problems, but it’s a giant step forward. It’s going to cover 32 million more Americans, make health care affordable through subsides that are not at all insubstantial, expand Medicaid to 133% of poverty & make its rates the same as Medicare so more doctors accept it. That’s on top of insurance reform making it illegal to not give coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, to drop people when they get sick, and to arbitrarily raise rates. It’s no Medicare-for-all, but it goes a long way in getting things done.
I really hope someone gives Nancy Pelosi some sort of award for being so great on this. Last night, she proved she was a great majority leader. An unbelievably giant step forward in social justice.
I’m pretty much with Rence on this, except that the Executive Order does a little more than maintain the status quo. It represents Obama reneging on his supposed pro-choice stance, and it makes it harder to get rid of the Hyde amendment.
But it’s true that Stupak didn’t get his language, and that’s all for the good. Nelson’s language is bad enough (and I *do* see it as an expansion of the Hyde Amendment, not just an affirmation of it).
I’ve been blogging about this issue since last summer, and I’ve always been clear that anything short of single-payer was not the wisest path forward. However, the advantages Rence names are real, and they’re why I ultimately decided that this bill would be considerably better than nothing.
For my family, the abolition of lifetime caps on benefits could become a big deal. My husband has had cancer twice, along with a number of other expensive issues. He’s doing well enough now that there’s a pretty good chance he will live well past the point of consuming $1 million on benefits. I believe our employer raised that cap recently, but I can easily imagine how people “run out” of coverage. So for this provision alone, I’m grateful.
I agree that Nelson’s language was an expansion, and it sucks to lose on the issue at all, but I said it’s not much more than an affirmation. Stupak-Fitz would have been a game changer, Nelson’s language is nothing close to that.
While I’d like to think otherwise, I don’t think Obama was ever going to make any attempt to get rid of Hyde. I think we’ll get to a point eventually in American politics where the pro-choice side wins, but I don’t think it will be anytime soon.
I still hate Stupak for even inserting abortion into the debate – I expected it from the GOP, but Stupak went too far in letting it come from our side, and then holding the whole bill hostage for it.
And for what it’s worth, both Medicare and Social Security didn’t have the teeth they have today when they were passed. This bill is a giant step forward in the direction of real health care reform, and it only gets easier to change it from here.
Exactly right: I still hate Stupak for even inserting abortion into the debate – I expected it from the GOP, but Stupak went too far in letting it come from our side, and then holding the whole bill hostage for it.
Our trouble is we’ve got dozens of these anti-choice congresscritters among the House Democrats, and the alternative in many of those districts seems to be an anti-choice Republican. I’m not sure that’s true for Charlie Wilson’s seat, but his latest email to me reaffirmed his anti-choice position and boasted at being present when Obama signed that executive order. Ugh.
I will definitely give Obama and Pelosi credit for being bold!
I’m not sure Obama deserved much credit until recently. He went for months without showing much leadership on HCR. But now he seems to have found his spine again, and I hope he’ll use it on banking reform.