Because it needs to be noted...

So, for anyone that was paying attention yesterday the Health Care Bill passed.

I'm the only person I know who is undecided on if this bill is a good thing or a bad thing.

While I feel that our politicians are mostly corrupt and mostly only out with only their own careers in mind I also feel that there are many unfortunate people that are dying because they can't afford the cost of medical care.

I do worry that the Health Care Bill is little more than a D.C. Power grab though...  a way for our politicians to make more money and have even more control over things that don't effect them. The fact that most high level politicians are lawyers is (in my mind) not a good thing. While I don't think all lawyers are bad people I do think that they have all been schooled in how to twist things, find loop holes, and sometimes put aside moral concerns to better do their jobs. Knowing how to "pull the wool over peoples eyes" in a politician can play out to be a very bad thing.

I worry that the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have effectively bought our elected officials. Why is nothing ever said about the price of what it take to make a pill vs the cost of that pill? Why don't we realize that insurance companies benefit from having everyone required to use them? Why is it that the supplies that are used in medicine are so outrageously expensive? These things aren't high priced because insurance is high priced... I believe these things are a big part of why insurance costs so much. Why is a plastic piece that costs pennies to make being sold to us for oh so much more?

Having a bill pass that is full of problems an loopholes pretty much guarantees that those problems and loopholes won't all be fixed...  if only because they benefit the politicians. Who has ever seen a bad government program dissolved? I haven't...

Besides the fact that our government is in over it's head as far as debt goes... and this isn't just our grandchildrens money we are talking about. Do you know who we borrow that debt from? That's right... China. A country that is the epitome of justice (can you feel the sarcasm?). What happens if we can no longer pay our debt? What happens if they decide NOT to be understanding when that happens? What is the collateral? This is a HUGE problem.

Now to the other side...

If you think that earlier when I said that people are dying because they can't pay for medical treatment that I'm exaggerating, think again. The poor in our country wait until things are to a dire state before they take  themselves to the Emergency Room and often by the time they get there it is too late to do anything... specifically when the "thing" that they were "waiting out" is diagnosed as cancer. It would cost us, the taxpayer, so much less if they went in to a regular doctors visit when they first noticed something is wrong and then we (the taxpayer) paid for that instead of the ER.

While I think that many social programs are too far reaching and that in many cases if the public was made directly responsible for taking care of their poor and downtrodden (no longer being able to just drive past that beggar on the corner thinking "he can go to a shelter" or "if she is really in that bad of shape then the government should be helping her all she has to do is fill out a couple of forms...") then they would give more, willingly, than what the taxes take by force. Just look at what happened with Hurricane Katrina with the amount the public willingly gave... just look at Haiti... when the public is made aware of major issues by the media they step up and help. The American people are some of the most caring people in the world as far as being willing to give of their time and their resources.

However, how does that work for medicine? I know that I, for one, don't know how to diagnose pneumonia, nor how to properly treat it... I don't know how to tell when someone is foregoing without medical treatment without them telling me. Why in this world does a child that is born to poor (or even middle class) parents and happens to need a tonsillectomy have to fight with the insurance company over if it was a "pre-existing" condition? Are you kidding me? btw, I have a friend who had exactly that happen to them.

The opposition to prioritizing who gets treatment based on need is a bit ridiculous in my book... be opposing it people are saying that their elderly terminally ill grandparent who is going to die of cancer anyway deserves a kidney transplant to live 2 months longer while the same cost and procedure could save a childs life... as of right now, the prioritization isn't by need... it's by social class. Those who see that as just... well, lets just say, they baffle me.

I have 2 sick kids at the moment... for me (with excellent insurance mind you) it will cost me $50 to take them both to see the pediatrician. $50 is minuscule compared to what the actual bill turns out to be... but it's still $50 that I need to go a buy Jer some shirts with...  And if I didn't have insurance? Ya... about $200 later....nope, the kids definitely wouldn't be going to the doctor until I was fearful for their lives or the long term effects of "whatever" upon them.

One side looks heartless and the other side looks careless... a choice between "the better of two evils".

So in the end something has to be done about all of it. As much as I hate to give more money to our smug and out of control politicians and hope it gets where it is needed... it looks like that is going to happen anyways. There is no way there is going to be anything bipartisan on this... I wish their were. The people that are for it, are for it, and the people that are against it are against it and they aren't going to vote for it even if it does have many of their ideas in it (which it wouldn't, because that would be like saying they supported it.)... because they are against the whole thing. There is no working together.

I guess it now becomes a "wait and see" situation... hopefully now that the thing has passed we will get some modifications to it from the people who were so dead set against it... because, lets face it, it's going to happen now... might as well tweak something you were against so that it isn't "so bad"... right?

Oh, how I wish there was a better solution.