Regardless, starting at 10 a.m. EST, the Senate will commence debate on a health care reform bill. The obvious partisan divide is the critical issue along with a handful of Democrats who also may not be on board.
My own little health insurance misery just arrived two days ago. Two months ago I sprained my knee. This was a bad sprain, swelling and bleeding that turned my leg from the knee down into a colorful array. I became alarmed thinking I might have a clot or some kind of blood poisoning based on the colorful array.
Long story short, I have had three co-pay type of bills since, with the latest one arriving Thursday. Let's just say the amount is on the large side of the equation. The type of large that will eliminate holiday present money and more.
How was I treated in the hospital? A physician's assistant saw me for 10 minutes and I had an ultrasound to check for a clot, that took 15 minutes. They had to have been billing me for my time in the waiting room which was around 6 hours.
CNN: What to expect in Senate's Saturday health care vote
...Saturday is expected to vote on whether to begin debate -- also known as invoking cloture...
...expand health insurance coverage to 30 million more Americans at an estimated cost of $849 billion over 10 years.
If Democrats do get the 60 votes needed to proceed, the legislative game only just begins. Expect several weeks of amendments being introduced, impassioned debates on the Senate floor and news conferences for and against the proceedings.
3 comments:
When the Gopers days after 9/11 2001 presented a completely pre-fashioned Patriot Act ( It had been written yrs. before this event just in case the Fascists had a chance like such an attack to destroy the Constitution) it was passed in a few hrs. with a 99 to 0 vote without anyone having read a page of it! Now consider how quickly the Senate passed this rights destroying piece of neo-con trash and whats going on right now over so called Health Reform.
Hope your leg is doing ok!
The Senate Republicans have an alternative plan for health care, its called increasing the military budget.
One thing that is becoming clearer and clearer to me, is that whether we like it or not, our best shot at any kind of progressive change in this country is with the Democrats. There just isn't any other viable big time answer other than our own individual efforts. There is no other possibility. We can imagine ideal situations and study theories till the day we die, and the hard reality is that there is no real alternative to the two party system and the people who are in that system are all we have. There's no escaping it other than escaping it in our minds which is useful but not pragmatic. We can influence people with information and ideas, education and such but the implementation takes decades. The truth of it is this, if Obama tanks by 2012, the alternative is likely to be someone worse than Bush, like Palin or Cheney or Guilliani or Romney.
My leg is back to normal, thanks.
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