“Yes, we did!” cried Gary Ackerman, a Democratic Congressman from New York, as President Barack Obama signed the healthcare bill into law.
On March 23, while Conn students ended Frisbee tournaments in Georgia, worked on job applications from home, and treated orphans in Uganda, among other spring break activities, the U.S. of A enacted legislation more expansive for social policy than any under Presidents Bush or Clinton, and perhaps the most significant since FDR’s New Deal.
The bill was the result of significant cumulative efforts, particularly those made by the late Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts; by Secretary of State and former New York Senator Hillary Clinton, including during her tenure in Bill Clinton’s administration; by President Obama; and by Speaker of the House and California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
The bill, entitled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has met with appreciation, controversy and confusion since its inception near the beginning of President Obama’s term. Among the changes it brings about:
-Young people will be able to remain on their caregivers’ health insurance plans until age 26, an option which currently ends when full-time student status ends.
– Beginning in 2014, those who do not receive health insurance from their employers or from the government can shop for policies on exchanges. The policies sold on exchanges will be subsidized for many low- and middle-income Americans.
-Laid-off workers can stay with the same insurance policy –though employers are not required to pay the premiums.
-Pre-existing conditions, such as gender, cannot be used to increase the cost of healthcare.
-Small businesses will be given tax credits to facilitate insuring their employers.
-Those with private plans they find acceptable will not have their care altered.
The bill’s passage was touted as an achievement of leftists’ – indeed, the Democrats and independents present at the law’s signing in the East Wing of the White House were in a highly celebratory mood, with Vice President Joe Biden whispering to Obama, “Mr. President, this is a big fucking deal –” yet some groups remain distinctly dissatisfied, in a variety of contexts.
“Our mission is to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion,” wrote president of NARAL Pro-Choice America Nancy Keenan in a statement.
“We assessed the health-reform package against these criteria, and determined that, because of the egregious abortion-coverage restrictions, we could not endorse this bill…”
“The legislation includes an onerous provision that requires Americans to write two separate checks if the insurance plan they choose includes abortion coverage… even though more than 85 percent of private plans currently cover this care for women.”
Conservatives also expressed disdain for the bill and concern over the Stupak-Pitts proposed amendment, which would limit access to termination of conception for women on Medicaid. Texan Republican Randy Neugebauer shouted “Baby killer!” at Democrat Bart Stupak, according to numerous sources, after the latter politician decided to vote for the healthcare bill amidst claims that Stupak changed his mind following the apportionment of airport grants for his district.
Neugebauer later stated that his taunt had been directed at the bill itself, not at Stupak.
Others criticized the bill for failing to include a public option. As President Obama conducts his current campaign-style tour to promote the new legislation, he has been questioned on this issue; Obama’s speech in Iowa was interrupted when a member of the audience yelled out, “What about the public option?”
He answered, “because we couldn’t get it through Congress, that’s why. So they—but let’s—there’s no need to shout, young man. No need to shout. Thirty-two people—32 million people are going to have health insurance because of this legislation. That’s what this work is about.”
Throughout the legislation process, the President has cited his mother and her struggle with cancer and discriminatory insurance companies as inspiration for the reform.
In the end, NARAL and other groups on the left chose to reluctantly support the bill, or at least not to stand against it.
“We recognize that the bill will bring more than 30 million Americans into a system that includes affordable family-planning services, better access to contraception, and maternity care. It also outlaws some discriminatory insurance-industry practices that make health care more expensive for women,” Keenan wrote.
Keenan also expressed her disappointment “that politicians such as Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) were able to use women’s reproductive health as a bargaining chip.”
Figures such as Rush Limbaugh stated that they would leave the country if the bill were passed.
The bill was passed by the House of Representatives in a seven-vote margin, after going through the Senate in a slightly different form in December, amidst the rising outcry of the tea partiers and other conservative groups.
In the weeks leading up to the House vote, key Congresspeople were targeted on their way into the Chambers. Civil Rights activist and Congressional Representative of Georgia John Lewis and others were verbally assaulted, derogatory terms like ‘n**ger’ and ‘f**got’ hurled at them. Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, who is black, was spat upon by a protestor as he entered the Longworth House building.
Democratic Congresspeople have also received e-mail threats, as well as a letter mailed to Representative Anthony Weiner of New York containing unidentified white powder. Some members of the House are stepping up their personal security as a result.
Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa gave a speech to a group of tea partiers a week before the House vote. He urged, “Let’s beat that other side to a pulp! Let’s chase them out. Let’s chase them down. There’s going to be a reckoning!”
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremism and hate groups, has noted a 244 percent increase in the number of active Patriot groups in 2009, which are anti-government, and often have Nativist tendencies.
Focusing on gaining approval for the bill, President Obama is continuing his national town hall speaking tour. He encourages a patient attitude toward the new law.
“It’s only been a week,” the President told a crowd in Portland, Maine. “Before we find out if people like health care reform, maybe we should wait until it actually happens.”
Sources
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-health-qa4-2010apr04,0,5809817.story
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_040210/content/01125114.guest.html
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/austin_plane_attack_tea_party_terrorism_20100218/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20001197-503544.html
http://splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-report-number-of-patriot-groups-militias-surges-by-244-in-past-year
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/30/rage_on_the_right_christian_militia
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/02/c_13234330.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/tea-party-protests-nier-f_n_507116.html
Oddly enough, the SPLC has been claiming that the number of “hate groups” in America has been increasing about 6% a year, since 2000, (Even though there is no legal definition of “hate group”). (http://wp.me/pCLYZ-K)
And yet, for 2009, the first full year of the Obama Administration, the SPLC only reports an increase of 6 “hate groups,” or about six-tenths of one percent, the LOWEST alleged increase in decades, according to the SPLC’s own numbers.
So which IS it? Has the number of “hate groups” increased dramatically since President Obama took office, as the SPLC claims, or has it increased by the LOWEST number in decades, as the SPLC claims?
They can’t have it both ways… unless, of course, they’re just trying to scare the donors out of a few million more donor-dollars..
Equally disturbing is the fact that NOT ONE of the SPLC’s top ten, highest paid executives is a minority. (http://wp.me/pCLYZ-3r)
The last remaining “Whites Only” sign in Montgomery hangs in the boardroom of the SPLC. Some “experts.”
That’s actually incorrect.
Here are the Board of Directors, many of whom are not white.
http://www.splcenter.org/who-we-are/board-of-directors
So, Richard Keefe, are you trolling the internet to defame any mention of the SPLC, or do you have ties to the college, or what?