The Sickening Reality Over Health Care Reform

About forty-five million Americans are either without affordable health care insurance or have none at all. It is all too common for people to lose their health care benefit upon losing a job, something that is very familiar to many Americans especially in a staggering economy where the unemployment rate is 9.5% and climbing. And for those who are insured and have a job, many of them are being denied coverage by insurance companies upon becoming ill due to a “pre-existing conditions.” Medical costs is on the rise to the tune of two percent above inflation, and the number one reason for filing for bankruptcy is due to high medical bills.

Therefore Congress is currently debating a sweeping health care reform bill, H.R. 956: HealthCARE Act of 2009, which its official goal is “to expand the number of individuals and families with health insurance coverage, and for other purposes.”

President Obama is pressing for a sweeping change in the American health care system, and with his party owning a considerable majority in the House and filobuster proof super majority in the Senate, passing this bill should be smooth sailing, right? Well, not so fast.

A band of conservative Democrats known as the “blue dog Democrat” are pushing to have the vote postponed until Congress reconvenes in the fall after the summer recess. “We have successfully pushed a floor vote to September,” said Mike Ross (D-Ark.). “The American people want us to slow down, and that’s what we’re doing here.” The blue dog Democrats also want to introduce a more watered down version of the public option language in the bill, a feature designed to lower the cost of health care by introducing the government as an alternative insurance provider thereby introducing competition.

So what exactly does a Democratic member of Congress have to gain by delaying a vote on a health care reform bill? According to Opensecrets.org:

There’s a particular breed of lawmaker on Capitol Hill that is pushing hard against a public health care plan, much to the delight of two seriously moneyed special interest groups–insurers and pharmaceuticals. They’re the Blue Dogs: moderate, vocal and funded in part by the industries trying to protect their bottom line. Read Full Article