President Obama ran on the promise to reform health care, and he did manage to pass a sweeping health care reform bill, but it was politics as usual by the time he reached the two year mark in his presidency. The new legislature vows to overturn the bill. And do what? That’s the question no one is effectively answering. As always, public health suffers in the legislature. Whether it’s the insurance lobby or environmental hazards, big business always comes ahead of the people’s well being.
The problem is not isolated to the Congress in Washington. The same health care bickering and debating is happening at the state level, too. The simple fact is that there are more needs than money to meet those needs, and those with the most don’t want to give it up to help anyone with less. The United States has the best health care money can buy, and that’s the cunundrum. How do we buy it? Most of us can’t afford it. Whether our diseases are self made, hereditary or due to poisoning of the environment, most of us can’t pay cash to get well, and our insurance policies like to avoid covering any risk we pose. Health care reform was supposed to change that. For some reason, the legislature doesn’t agree.
The crazy part of the repeal of health care reform is that in the end, the people who hope to gain will lose the most. Hospitals will be forced to care for people who have no way to pay. Doctors will be in the same boat. Public health will be at risk as fewer people seek medical care and fewer poor parents get their children vaccinated and into see a doctor on a regular basis. The problem is complex, and it appears that it will continue to get worse as big business demands get more attention than real health demands.