Haunted House Health Hearing…
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the cool, cloudy, spooky little island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this Wednesday morning, the 30th day of October, 2013, the day before Halloween, with the ghosts and goblins on Cape and aforementioned islands, as well as all over New England and the country, getting ready for their big night of scoring lots and lots of candy, well what can I say–have fun and be safe! On this overcast day here in my loft overlooking the Steamship Authority on the Hyannis Harbor, I am listening/viewing the live coverage of the special oversight committee (House of Representatives) peppering the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, sometimes juvenile and wicked, with questions regarding troubles in and around the rough rolling out of the website, “Healthcare.gov”, the connector of the controversial Affordable Health Care Law, set to go “into effect” on January 1st, 2014. This is, of course, the touchstone connecting millions of Americans to affordable health care that no longer allows, just one example of the great benefits, the greedy FOR PROFIT health care monopolies to deny and/or drop coverage for individuals with preexisting conditions, the major reason OUR private health care system is so flawed, morally flawed as millions of American brothers and sisters go without what many, including this writer, consider to be a human RIGHT–affordable, attainable, effective health care insurance coverage (not to mention this program is the child of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, born in the late eighties, only to evolve into ‘Romneycare’ in the state of Massachusetts in 2006). Of course, this roll out has been rocky to say the least, giving the far right wing(nut) element of the ‘not your grandfather’s GOP’ red meat to feed it’s flock, bringing up contentions about some of their constituents insurance plans being cancelled, when in fact, they were upgraded to better plans for less money (insurance, not junk insurance, for the millions of under-insured). The Canadian IT firm, CGI and Verizon share most of the blame for the ‘technical difficulties’ and the administration deserves some blame for such a roll out of a website that only had about an eight month ramp up time. However, this is not a debate about the LAW, even though the right wants that very thing as they speak of Dorothy and the classic film, “The Wizard of Oz”. ‘Tis true we are not in Kansas anymore, right Ted Cruz? What is the kickback from the real “men behind the curtain” who pull your string as you contradict yourself reading Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham”? The right wing media whores have done a splendid job pulling the wool over many a FOX NEWS viewer’s eyes, ever replacing FACT with blatant lies that not only mislead, but do real harm to their audience, ever begging the question, ‘why on God’s green earth are there not health warnings, like prescription drugs, for watching even a minute of a show like “FOX & Friends”? When the side effects still include nausea, loss of sleep and internal bleeding, not to mention brain damage. This hearing is about the website and should be about the FACT that millions of Americans will finally be able to get affordable health care, without being denied because of previous conditions, at reasonable rates with no fear of being dropped, again, because you got sick, or lost your job, or left your job, thus bringing about more freedom for everyone involved. This program will be as, or more, popular than Social Security and Medicare combined. For this is protection in most people’s early and midlife where before, it was not, and had it not been for the likes of a great former Senator, the late, great Teddy Kennedy from right down the street here in Hyannis Port, Health CARE in this nation would not have become a reality, for it was a team effort with the great President Barack Obama, and this signature legislation will go down in history as one of the bravest and best victories one could have hoped for in the first African-American President in our young counties’ legacy and that he, Kennedy, was right, that this ‘concept’ of health care insurance is indeed that RIGHT, and always will be. Heck, just ask yourself Ted, Ted Cruz that is, “what would Jesus do?” Have a nice, wicked nice, day! PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
