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howard stateman ([personal profile] howeird) wrote2010-03-25 12:34 pm
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Just My Humble Opinion

The passing of the health care bill was not about health care at all. It was about Nancy Pelosi trying to prove the Democrats could actually pass a bill, despite having an overwhelming majority in the house and the tie-breaker vote in the Senate. The fact that not a single Republican voted for it only shows how dependent they are on the GOP for their campaign funding. And how much of the GOP's treasure chest comes from insurance companies, drug companies, medical supply companies and the people who run them.

[identity profile] bovil.livejournal.com 2010-03-25 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
It's a strange world we're in. The party of rugged individuality values loyalty and conformity above all. The party of the common good can't organize itself to pass legislation when they've got a whopper of a majority.

What we got wasn't health care reform, it was health insurance reform. The Democrats who are running this election cycle need to start getting real people who will benefit from this insurance reform (small business owners, the self-employed, folks with preexisting conditions and running against lifetime caps) to start doing campaign ads for them and turn it into a positive.

[identity profile] bovil.livejournal.com 2010-03-25 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
It's phased in. The Merc had a timeline of what parts take effect when.

Right now, today, we get an end to lifetime caps, an end to pre-existing conditions, and an end to dropping policyholders because they get sick.

Those immediate changes are a big deal for a lot of people, and they're going to be very hard to campaign against come fall.