Help! Healthcare Hell!

What a mess!  First of all let me say I hate the term "Obamacare"; and not just because it was coined by that actor guy named Limbaugh.  The healthcare plan President Obama tried to get through Congress and the plan Congress passed are very different.  What the President attempted would have really changed things (good or bad) and what we got is a bit of a water downed mess that won't change the big picture dramatically.  Doctors, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, lawyers, and mostly lobbyists will still make plenty of money, the upper 1-2% of Americans will get the greatest healthcare available in the World and the rest of us will pay allot for healthcare coverage.  Don't misunderstand me here:  I like what has passed.  It is better than what was in place before.  My premiums have gone up but I have known for three years they would.  And I still pay very little for excellent coverage.  Thanks to the new provisions: I didn't have to pay a dime for a routine colonoscopy, my wife gets a free mammogram, my children who are out of school and under the age limit are still on my policy, and family members with pre-existing conditions cannot be turned down for coverage.  I know it is not a perfect solution but for Mr. Average Middle Class the changes have and will be good.

Perhaps at some point I will wax on the idea of socialized medicine.  I think there are good things and bad things about it, but a good exploration will need more time than I have right now.  I do think that is is unfortunate that because of the inclusion of the term (social-) many people will not consider anything that they think is linked to communism.

So healthcare reform is constantly being linked to partisan politics.  If what we presently have is linked with President Obama and the Democrats, what is the Republican plan?  Mitt Romney supported about the same thing in Massachusetts but now has changed his mind (OK by me to change your mind if it is done for thoughtful, principled reasons rather than cynical, political ones).  What is Mitt's plan?  He hasn't said.  When a FOX reporter asked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to describe his party's (R) plan to replace "Obamacare" (ugh!) he said that first the GOP had to repeal Obamacare.  When asked the simple question two more times McConnell continued to refuse to offer any plan. He just kept saying that the GOP (not Congress mind you) must first repeal Obamacare.  The most powerful man in the Republican party will not speak about a specific alternative healthcare plan. Of course this is the same politician that said "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President.”  This powerful Congressional leader (remember Congress? supposed to by our lawmakers and overseers of the common good) cares more about dumping his political opposition then passing any meaning good legislation. And you wonder why I don't like politicians and especially the GOP right now.

The only way to get any good done for the common man is to be open to ideas.  No matter who comes up with them or what words they contain.  Listen.  Debate the points not the ideology.