Submitted by Kevin from New York in response to “What Are Your Issues”.
I noticed in polls of late that the democrats are loosing a considerable amount of ground to republicans both in general and on many issues including health care.
My concern is- Since many of the new health care benefits and programs are being phased in over time, what happens to them if large numbers of democrats get swept out of office over the next few year? From what I understand, like all legislation, these new programs are not written in stone and can be changed by congress. Are large scale negative changes and wipe-outs a real possibility?
I hope so. It needs improvement.
Do you believe that people should be able to get equal coverage even if they have a disability or other pre-existing condition?
Do you believe that there should be no annual or lifetime caps on insurance benefits?
If so, you should be worried that a future Congress may undo health care reform. Any Congress can undo what a previous Congress has done.
Undoubtedly there will be efforts to undo health care reform. The question is – how effective will those efforts be? That depends largely on the outcome of the Nov 2010 elections.
Health care reform as enacted is indeed far from perfect, but it’s much better than doing nothing. With existing health care premiums increasing by up to 39% per year – along with higher deductibles and co-pays — the current system is unsustainable for most employers and employees.
In any case, everyone has their own definition of a perfect health care reform bill – compromise is what makes democracy work.
It certainly needs to be improved over the form in which it was just enacted. One would hope that many of the common sense improvements (eliminating preexisting conditions and life-time caps) will remain while tort reform and other REAL cost-saving provisions might be added.
As pointed out during the debate on the health care reform bill, past presidents–both Democrat and Republican–have been promising health care reform for more than 100 years. President Obama actually got it done. If you want to keep health care reform, find out how your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Congressional representative voted on the health care reform bill, and cast your vote in November accordingly for those who are running for re-election or seeking to be elected. It’s the one action we can all take to keep health care reform intact.
I believe that Terry struck right to the heart of it. Regardless of which corner (and there are many) of this issue you call home, we are all clearly better served by taking the fight where it belongs. That’s off each others backs and on to the backs of our elected honorables.