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Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Boomer with Attitude / News Health reform war in its final throes
Posted By John Grooms on Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 1:30 PM
With the president on the warpath in the heartland, the battle over health care reform is now in its final throes (special thanks to Dick Cheney for the great phrase), with Democrats moving toward probable passage of a bill in the next few weeks. Just in time for reform’s stretch run, the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Protection released its annual “Top 10 Consumer Complaints” list for 2009. No. 1 on the list? Yep: health care complaints. Second place went to another current public favorite, lending institutions. The main health care gripes by N.C. consumers focused on weight-loss product rip-offs, medical billing and collection practices, and being overcharged for medical services.
Over the weekend, the health care reform debate/war took on a new, surreal aspect, courtesy of the queen of political surrealism, Sarah Palin. In Calgary, Canada for a money-making, self-promotional event (tickets to see Palin were in the $150-200 range), Palin revealed that when she was a girl in rural Alaska, she and her family would cross the Canadian border to take advantage of that country’s single-payer health care system. “We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," Palin said. "And I think now, isn't that ironic." Yes, it is, Sarah if by “ironic” you mean that you survived life in rural Alaska by using the same kind of evil, destructive, “socialist” health care system you now wail against. There is apparently no bottom to the depths of this woman’s cluelessness.
Meanwhile, Pres. Obama is hitting the trail, urging Americans who support health care reform to call or write their representatives in Washington to support the bill now before both houses. Yesterday, Obama was in Pennsylvania, tearing into health insurance companies for their relentless gouging of Americans, in a style reminiscent of his campaign speeches. (Where has this guy been?). He told listeners to make their support for reform “louder’ than the health industry lobbyists who are trying to stop reform. Obama wants a law that will expand care to millions who lack it; offer subsidies to cut costs for lower income families and small businesses; and ban insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
Charlotte voters’ House representatives, Sue Myrick and Mel Watt, are firmly committed to their positions, as is Sen. Richard Burr. The most useful phone call or e-mail you can make in favor of health care reform is to Sen. Kay Hagan who has supported reform in the past, but is still an uncertain vote in the current debate. Call Sen. Hagan’s office at 202-224-6342 in Washington, D.C.; 704-334-2448 in Charlotte; or e-mail her at http://hagan.senate.gov.
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