Health Reform Passes, But I Still Don't Feel So Good

Don't get me wrong: health care is a really good
thing, something that should be a universal human right and never
treated like a for-profit commodity. The only options approaching this
horizon were long ago deemed "fringe" in the popular debate, leaving
progressives to
huddle around a lukewarm "public option" that never had a prayer of
making the final cut when it came time to pass the bill. Staunch
legislative holdouts miraculously caved at the last minute to support a
problematic law, and the only folks representing the "no" side of the
argument in the end were the regressive wingnuts rattling congressional
cages with thinly-veiled homophobia and racially-tinged expletives. You
know things are bad when that cadre even starts to make a little bit of
sense on the issues -- although of course, their alternative health plan
probably includes requirements that people first show their birth
certificates and pass an English test before being handed a set of
bootstraps and a grade school anatomy book that omits any images of
private parts and excludes anti-American doctors like Seuss, Zhivago,
Ruth, and Spock.

The best part of the new bill is where we all get to
buy health insurance from Monopolies
Unlimited, and if we can't afford it there will be subsidies given to
us that we can then give right to the same insurance companies who have
of course served our interests so well up to this point. If we don't
purchase this coverage, then the IRS can levy fines on us, which in many
cases will be cheaper than the required tithe; this will leave some
folks in the awkward position of having to pay to remain uninsured,
which would be ironic if it wasn't so excruciatingly real. However, even
those who do pay for coverage -- top dollar, too, since viable price
controls are a non-sequitur by now -- will be receiving only insurance
and not necessarily actual
care, since many steps on the ladder to treatment must be traversed
in between insurance provision and medical fruition. The apex of the
perverse options will be embodied by those who refuse to pay the
insurance companies for an inherently
defective product and also refuse to pay the fine for their
transgression, leading to a class of people perhaps to be deemed the
"Uninsurables" who will be made to wear the letter "U" on their chests
and will be legally prohibited from ever getting sick.

But wait! This new bill is only a first step in the
direction of better and more universal health care, say the apologists.
It's the best we could get in this political climate, and represents the
sort of compromise that marks both maturity and good sense. It
emboldens the Democrats to be more progressive, and provides our
fledgling young President with a much-needed momentum boost. It will
save money, cover millions more people, rein in some of the worst
insurance practices, and bring America into closer alignment with the
rest of the nations of the civilized world. To oppose this bill at this
critical time would indicate that one is either hopelessly partisan
(Republicans),
plain old wacko (Teabaggers), naively socialistic (Single Payer),
deeply unrealistic (Public Option), or electorally useless (The Actual
Left). At the end of the day, we have to get on board with this, since
it's the only game in town, right?

Hmm, I almost even convinced myself for a minute
there (not really). Here's another rendering of the game. Corporate
lobbyists opposed the bill until they got the one they wanted, and
indeed this one looks a lot like their model version proposed in 2008.
Huge sums of money flowed to key congresspersons to purchase/influence
their votes, and even the few still on the board who seem at times to
display integrity reversed course and gave this one a thumbs up. The
political landscape is now dominated by one party with no ideas except
regressive anti-intellectualism, and another with no spine that is
pretty well bought out by Corporate Persons who vote (and vote and vote)
with their unlimited
dollars. As for we the people, our triumph is that we now get to have
more of us relegated to universal serfdom and also must (or else) pay
fealty and tribute to the neo-Robber Barons who have generously expanded
the realm of insurance coverage in a selfless act of noblesse oblige.
The politics of "least worst" once again prevails, and our health is
now totally owned by the company store. And as a final insult, people
you like and admire are cheerleading for this, and to do otherwise
renders one anathema (which is not covered under most policies, of
course).

Suddenly, amidst the celebratory gaveling and
laudatory reveling, despite the incessant and pervasive chatter about
health this and health that, and notwithstanding the wire-services
version of the good news about expanded coverage -- suddenly, I'm not
feeling all that well. Watching my country continue down a path of
feudalism posing as democracy, where our choices
are constrained by the machinations of the far right and the
center-right, has left me with a damaged heart and an open wound. While
my personal disillusionment is no doubt preexisting,
its exacerbation is ongoing and I'm beginning to wonder if there's any
hope for a cure at this point. Indeed, I had tried to ignore this
condition in the misguided belief that it would magically go away, but
it only seemed to get worse in the process. Now I fear it's become
chronic.

But hey, we finally got health care, and hope is
restored! Yes, this should effectively balance out perpetual wars,
environmental toxification, Big Brother, Bigger Bailouts, mainstream
media, rampant recession, and climate change. Whew! It felt good to list
all that out. Maybe I won't be needing that required checkup from my
cold-handed health insurance provider after
all.