The Health Care Fight Has Racial Overtones!
By Sinclere Lee
Washington (BNW) — Health care for all Americans shouldn’t be an issue in the most prosperous country on Earth. But it is. … It’s an issue because most white Americans have been brainwashed against heath care reform due to the billion dollars worth of negative ads that were run over and over until they all hated a good idea. The insurance industry ran all those negative ads and their motive of racial hatred smelled to high heaven.
Since most Americans are considered retards in the eyes of the world community, little wonder there was not an outrage over the money spent to keep millions of Americans without a plan. Now, that Nancy Pelosi and Democrats are doing what they should have done months ago… Pass the bill over the objections of Republicans because they will never support it anyway, and get on with the rest of the nation’s business.
Now, Republicans who urged anti-healthcare supporters to help them “kill the bill” only days ago suddenly seem to be shouting “repeal the bill,” as if Democrats are truly destined for victory. Yet their Democratic opponents in the House seem too scared to say ‘yea’ without more than a little bit of pressure.
Even if the bill passes, the insurance industry ain’t giving up! Dozens of Republican lawmakers and candidates are reported to have signed a pledge to repeal the President’s healthcare plan, should the GOP take control of either the House or Senate in November. The Washington Post says 37 House and Senate members and 163 congressional candidates have already signed the pledge.
That’s an agreement to overturn legislation that hasn’t even seen light of day. And it comes less than two days after fiscal conservative activists kicked off an 11th hour bid to drown the Democratic cause in a torrent of phone calls, e-mails and congressional office visits.
The Republican action may seem very confident. But it does show just how big a role the healthcare reform issue is likely to play in the November elections, they think, when voters cast ballots for all 435 House seats and one-third of the 100 Senate seats.
While most Republican politicians and their families have insurance coverage, there are horror stories being told how insurance companies are refusing coverage to the most needy. In May 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance.
Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis, revoked his policy. Mitchell was told that without further treatment his HIV would become full-blown AIDS within a year or two and he would most likely die within two years after that.
So he hired an attorney — not because he wanted to sue anyone; on the contrary, the shy African-American teenager expected his insurance was canceled by mistake and would be reinstated once he set the company straight.
But Fortis, now known as Assurant Health, ignored his attorney's letters, as they had earlier inquiries from a case worker at a local clinic who was helping him. So Mitchell sued.
In 2004, a jury in Florence County, South Carolina, ordered Assurant Health, part of Assurant Inc, to pay Mitchell $15 million for wrongly revoking his heath insurance policy.
In September 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the lower court's verdict, although the court reduced the amount to be paid him to $10 million.
By winning the verdict against Fortis, Mitchell not only obtained a measure of justice for himself; he also helped expose wrongdoing on the part of Fortis that could have repercussions for the entire health insurance industry.
Democrats, equally aware of the consequences, are already planning to use an arcane parliamentary procedure in the House that would allow themselves to pass Obama’s reforms without directly voting for them.
And as the political fireworks rage behind closed doors, they’re now also trying to calm the timorous breasts of some wavering House members by getting their big brothers and sisters in the Senate to hold their hands.
The Republican leadership in Congress is made up of people who obviously have problems with race. To a one, most politicians opposed to health care reform come from Southern states that have the highest proportion of its citizen without health care. What's up with that? For example, in Mississippi, where 1 in 4 citizens are without health care, the governor, fat Haley Barbour is the biggest hater of health because it would benefit the states’ Black citizens who represent most of the uninsured.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) both spoke to the press after GOP meeting using the same old company line. The insurance company line, that is — "They're going to continue to ram, ram, ram this bill through the Congress," Rep. Boehner said of their tactics. "Every kind of scheme known to man to try to get it through the Congress to vote."
If and when President Obama signs legislation revamping the nation’s health care system, several Republican-led states appear likely to fight a key provision of the new law in court.
Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter on Wednesday became the first governor to sign a bill setting up a possible court showdown, The Idaho Statesman reported. The new law directs the state attorney general to file suit if a mandate to buy health insurance is part of any federal law that emerges from Congress.
“How can somebody mandate us because we're breathing to buy health insurance?” Republican Representative Jim Clark told The Statesman. “Now we’re saying in code: We’re not going to stand for that.” Most whites are so confused about the bill that some whites who don't have health care and who the bill will obviously benefit are against the bill. You go figure!
Critics of a health insurance mandate say it differs from existing legal requirements for drivers to buy car insurance because driving is a choice. Buying health insurance, they say, is essentially a tax on being alive.
More than 30 other states are considering legislation similar to the bill Otter signed. In another critical state, Virginia, the office of the attorney general on Wednesday vowed its own lawsuit if Congress approves health care legislation this week, as Democrats hope.
Congressional budget scorekeepers say President Barack Obama's health care bill would reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over 10 years.
The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday the $940-billion legislation would provide coverage to 32 million people now uninsured by 2016, bring the total number of insured to about 95 percent of eligible Americans.
The budget office said the measure would continue to reduce the federal deficit in its second decade, although such projections are uncertain. Key to the long-term savings are changes that appear designed to attract support from fiscal conservatives. They include accelerating the impact of a tax on high cost insurance, and slowing the growth of subsidies to make insurance premiums more affordable.
Democrats in the House need to be reassured that if they muster the courage to do right by Obama, the fickle Senate won’t panic and abandon ship. So Senate Democrats are being asked to sign a letter expressing general support for pushing healthcare reform to final passage. Roll Call says the letter was even co-written by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s staff.
As if to prove that shyness isn’t solely a House quality, some Senate Democrats who boldly vow to vote ‘yea’ on legislation don't want to say so in writing. All this is a smokescreen from the real issue; most whites have figured out that Blacks will benefit from universal health and they don't like it! You feel me?