Ongoing Process

I make a serious point of not following the mainstream media (for very good reasons).  However, even following alternative outlets, I’d long since given up on reading about the health care reform debate.  After it became clear that the Republicans would never compromise on anything whatsoever and the Democrats would never stand up to them on anything whatsoever, I just couldn’t be bothered to participate in the absurdly prolonged circus.  Despite that, I could hardly not notice that it’s finally “over”, that the Democrats finally used their majority for once and the health care reform bill had passed.  I had a fleeting bit of hope (I’m one of the millions of uninsured), but then it was thoroughly crushed when I started reading the details of what actually passed.

Wow, that is what the right was having a collective paroxysm over?  In case you were like me and were caught unawares, all the bill does is put a stop to some of the more heinous ways that insurance companies fuck us over within the existing system.  Which is good!  That was desperately needed.  But I’d hardly call it a reform of the American healthcare system.  Reform is when the system itself is actually changed, most pointedly being when everyone has access to healthcare as a basic human right.  Certainly there are more people with access now, particularly those with pre-existing conditions (which, again, is a good thing!).  But for myself, and I imagine most of the other millions who don’t have coverage simply because it’s hideously expensive, it seems like for the real heart of the entire debate, we completely lost.  The Democrats rolled over, just like they always do.  And that unholy alliance of fundamentalism, (ironically) nationalism, and corporate greed that calls itself the Republican party continues its steamrolling of the citizenry, still largely unimpeded.

Call me back when I can actually get insurance.  Then I might care more about how it’s run.

Best.  Thing.  Ever.