Our Very Lives

On today's Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos assessed the five health care reform plans circulating in Congress, including the one that passed the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, and concluded that they all had three common aspects. The one that should be the most troubling is cuts of "hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare" to pay for the rest of the plan. This will no doubt result in diminished service for senior citizens, who will also face restricted access with care delayed or denied, either through outright rationing as a cost-saving measure or because the forty million newly insured will lengthen lines for the finite (and shrinking as many doctors will quit rather than work under the new government strictures) number of American doctors that much more. These reform bills will devastate seniors, yet they are endorsed by the young professional lobbyists running the AARP against the interests of the members that they supposedly represent. As regards union membership whose leaders have widely backed reform, they too will face the doctor shortage and despite assurances  from Democrats and union bosses that they will keep their generous plans under any reform, the insurance that they have won as a negotiated benefit is generally operated and administered through a private insurance or mutual  company and when all these companies have to meet government standards where government is setting the rules while aspiring to become a competitor through public option triggers, you can bet the private entities will a be put in a position where by necessity, they fail, leaving only one all-encompassing government administered national health scheme that union members whose support will have been vital in passing it, are thrown on the same sinking boat with the rest of us.