Screwed: Me and You, the Rest of America and Health Care

My plan was to do some research on health care in America, how much we spend on it in this country, how good or bad is the insurance industry, how do we compare health-wise to the rest of the industrialized world.

I'm way too lazy to do all that. And it would be boring to do, looking up all those statistics and facts and what not and then compiling them into a readable article. Impossible. Who gives a fuck about all that stuff?

Yes, I know it's important, but it's dull and people don't really want to take time for a serious look at the facts of health care in America. If they did, debate on the subject would not have been seized by loudmouths on the insurance lobby payroll who are trying to convince the dim amongst us that Uncle Sam will be chairing Death Panels that will vote to put your ailing grandma out to sea on an ice floe that just broke away from a larger ice mass that is melting because of the climate change that conservatives tell us isn't occurring. If grandma is lucky she'll freeze to death before that starving polar bear that's swimming toward her can get up on the ice and have her for dinner. But I digress.

So I'm just going to tell you what I know already without having to look anything up:

I'm screwed.

So are you.

So is the rest of America. We're all screwed. It's just a matter of the degrees of screwedness. (I just made a word up!)

It doesn't matter what kind of legislation is passed regarding health care reform, whether there is a public option or co-ops or a Health Care Fairy who will wave a magic wand from sea to shining sea to keep us all safe, we are all screwed. It's just a matter of how screwed are we going to be.

If the status quo remains, sooner rather than later the Average American who has to buy their own health insurance will have to choose between paying the ever increasing premium on that insurance or buying groceries and paying the rent or mortgage. The Average American will have insurance but will be homeless and starving.

If the Average American happens to have a job, a rare thing these days, he may get insurance through his employer. But insurance costs the employer money, and more and more frequently the cost is being shouldered by the employee. That is, until the employee is laid off as part of a cost cutting measure, one of those costs getting cut being health insurance for employees. Fewer employees, less money spent on employee insurance.

The public option of health care legislation sounds like a good thing, especially if it covers those many Average Americans who have no insurance at all, something like 40 million people. (There's one of those pesky statistics. Are you still awake? Still reading this, or have you gone off to buy The Beatles Rock Band? Pay attention! Just a couple more paragraphs. I'll make them short, I promise.)

Every American, I believe, should have access to affordable insurance for medical treatment. Anything less makes us less of a Great Nation.

The problem with insurance for Everybody is that Everybody's taxes are going to go up. There's no two ways around that, no matter what any chosen one may promise.

But I've thought about it, and I think we're screwed less, a lot less probably, with a public option than if we let things remain as they are. Bring on the Public Option!

Now we just need a Leader (I can't stress that word enough) who will force this to happen. As brilliant as Barack Obama was at running a campaign to win the presidency is how miserable a job he's done at coming up with a health plan and selling it to Americans. Worse, he can't even get a congress controlled by his own party to play along.

George W. Bush and his henchman, Dick Cheney, rammed a war and a homeland spy program through a Republican congress without a hitch. Why can't Barack Obama do this? Is it because Joe Biden is no Dick Cheney (which he is not)? Or does Obama suffer from Bill Clinton syndrome, and prefers to be liked by everyone rather than effective?

Obama needs to start playing rough with the members of his own party to get this health care with a public option, maybe even a single payer option, done. The Chosen One needs to stop acting like the Chosen One and more like the Chicago-style politician that everybody thinks he is. He isn't, or at least he hasn't been. Way too kid gloves so far, and not enough bare knuckles. If Chicago Mayor Richard Daley were president, the health care bill would have been rammed through a long time ago. Obama is no Daley. Not yet. Can he become one?

That's the only way to succeed here, for Obama to be more Daley and a lot less Clinton. Better still, he needs to be more like our former vice-president. Obama needs to go to Capitol Hill, twist some arms, and if anybody puts up a fight he should go all Dick Cheney on their asses. As for the Republicans, screw them, they're unnecessary. Health care reform can be passed without them, and then the Republicans will look even more obsolete than they look now.

The public option is too important for the future of America for Barack Obama to worry about being liked. When the president goes before Congress tonight he needs to spell out a plan for them to pass and make sure everyone knows they either need to play along or get out of the way.