Three big problems with and for health care reform

There are at least three big problems with and for the health care reform right now, in Washington, that could lead to who knows where--not the least of which is that the reform will yet be killed.

First, there is the fact that right now, today, Massachussetts is rather famously voting for a Senator to replace Ted Kennedy.

Ol' Ted will surely "spin in his grave", so to speak, if the Conservative, Republican Scott Brown--Tea Bagger that he is--wins the seat.

Hopefully all the Democrats turn out today and are backed by some independent voters and put Martha Coakley in the Senate.

If not, the Democrats lose their super-majority in the Senate and we lose our ability to pass any health care reform.

And that will be for years.

Cross your fingers.

The second problem for health care reform right now is that the mandate for all Americans to buy health care insurance may get thrown out as unconstitutional.

And you know? I have to say, it does seem that it would be tough to get this to fly in our courts.

Americans forced to buy health insurance by their government?

I don't think so.

And anyway, what sense did that ever make, anyway? If you can't afford health care, how is it that the government's mandating you to buy it is going to make that happen?

If you don't have the money for health care, you simply don't have the money for health care, government mandate or no government mandate.

And finally, this brings us to what is wrong, ultimately, at its core, for this entire health care reform. The third and final thing wrong with this is that the very industries we were supposed to be reforming were allowed in the room---heck, in the negotiations--during the whole debate to begin with.

That's insane.

Since when does the patient get to be their own doctor?

Meaning, our problems with health care should have meant that the hospitals and doctors and insurance agencies--especially the insurance agencies--shouldn't have been let in on the health care reform debate and proposals. They're all putting things in there for themselves, not the American people.

So what happened?

The "single-payer" option was discarded right away and this alone was estimated to have saved us $350 billion dollars per year---enough to pay for the entire health care reform.

It simply makes no sense to have 1300 different health care insurance forms--one for each insurance agency in the country. The savings would have been huge.

And the "public option" for a government insurance plan for us--at much lower costs--was thrown out.

How else can we get insurance companies to keep their costs down unless there is a government option?

The result was that the American people and the actual reforms we needed were thrown out, for the sake of the corporations and their profits.

I hope this will all have been worth it and we get some good health care reform.

Right now, nothing is certain.

Not what's in the bill and not whether we'll even get a bill.

Here's hoping.