The president is "not familiar" with the bill. No one can explain how it will work yet, as Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told a contentious town meeting. There are various plans, and negotiations are still in the early stages.
But whatever it is, we should be for it.
Am I missing something?
We're only talking about our health and our kids' health, the things my mother, may she rest in peace, told me a thousand times are the only things worth caring about. If you have your health, you have everything. And if you don't, what in the world matters more than the best health care in the world, which is found right here?
Not by everybody, mind you, and not cheaply, for anybody. No one's suggesting for a moment that there aren't major problems with both access and cost. But the best health care in the world is still here, and before we take steps that could make things much worse, I'd like to be very certain that they will indeed make things much better.
Your health, as I now tell my children, is not something to fool around with. Read the labels. Don't take unnecessary risks. Look before you leap. The devil is in the details.
Why would it be different for a health care plan?
I'm glad no one is calling me to ask whether I "support" health care reform.
At this point, the question — and the polls measuring people's answers to it — is utterly meaningless. What is health care reform?
Would I love to see every American have access to high-quality medical care? Of course.
Am I just as appalled as the next person when I get the bill (that for me, luckily, is mostly paid by insurance) and see what various tests and scans cost, or, rather, what hospitals are forced to charge patients with insurance in order to cover the ones without it? Sure.
But I'm not willing to give up my doctor or the time I spend with him. I'm not willing to give up the relationship we have. My children, now grown, feel as comfortable calling him as I do because he has taken the time with them over the years to build that trust.
And no matter how high the final price tag on those tests have been, never once have I said, "If I'd known how much they would cost, I wouldn't have had them done." No, I'm grateful for my insurance, grateful for the technology, grateful for good care.
So am I for health care reform? Do I support the House bill, whatever it is, or the Obama plan, which may or may not be the same thing?
Not yet. Not until I know what it is. Not until someone convinces me that whatever it is will do more good than harm, both for the country and for my family. Mother knows best.
To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM
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I can hardly believe what I am reading. You and I on the same page. Although I don't know why I should be surprised since your articles are always well atricluated but this time we both have the same conclusions. Congress and BO want this run through like a freight train, something this complex requires a through process. This is being put together by 3 committes and then merged and voted on before anyone has had a chance to read it completely. Even BO admits he doesn't know what is in it but he's willing to sign it. As far as I am concerned that is dereliction of duty.....not only from him but any member of Congess or the Senate that votes "yea" for this BS. Such gross dereliction can, in my opinion, be grounds for not just impeachment but a trial on charges of treason. Luckily the American people are starting to wake up to the mindless and insane spending going on. BO may very well end up like Clinton....having both Houses turn Repub just 2 years into his Presidency.
Comment: #1
Posted by: Adam
Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:24 AM
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It is refreshing to read a blogger who is not "knee jerk." I agree entirely with Adam. Even though I disagree with most of what Ms. Estrich writes, she is able to oppose oubvious nonsense (like a pig-in-the-poke health care bill) even when her political allies are pushing it. She is sort of Katherine Parker of the left. Maybe if the liberal blogesphere has the equivalen of a "Town Hall Forum," she can pick up a "one-check" rating for everything she posts because she disagreed with the conventional wisdom once or twice.
Comment: #2
Posted by: JohnEMack
Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:35 AM
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Thanks Susan for using common sense!
Comment: #3
Posted by: Early
Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:16 AM
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Like Adam, I too am amazed to find myself in complete agreement with Susan. Too bad the Democrats in Washington won't listen. They are hell-bent to ram this through no matter what although they'll exempt themselves from the carnage. The destruction that this healthcare bill could cause to the best healthcare system on Earth and our economy is easy to see but they don't care. All that seems to matter is expanding their voting base by making as many people as possible dependant on the government. The CBO numbers indicate that we could give every uninsured person insurance, a house and a car and it would still be cheaper than this plan.
The jihad on America is just beginning. Stimulus plans that don't stimulate. Healthcare fiasco, Cap & Trade, massive spending and deficits and the coming Amnesty push will certainly take a country on the brink of collapse over the edge. Socialism is becoming a fact of life. The Constitution will be systematically dismantled. Reliable inside sources say that Obama already has had his staff look into the requirements to suspend elections in times of crisis. Think I'm crazy? Just wait and see.
Comment: #4
Posted by: Jan
Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:06 PM
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Susan, you are a parent. I will ask you a simple question. could you have given birth to your children and about two weeks after they were born, could you have killed them because they were not perfect?
Because that is what you are saying about universal health care. Lets abort this or kill this BEFORE we give it a chance.
Any rational person knows that anything good begins in infant stage and through nurturing turns into something good when the guiding hand of a loving parent points that infant in the right direction .
Every baby needs his or her diaper changed during the fledgling years. That is what we have to do with universal health care. We need to give it life and then move it along into something that is meaningful and does the job.
The Republicans believe in abortion on this issue. They do not want to give this an opportunity to succeed. If you support that attitude, I think you are being very shortsighted.
The system as it stands now, allows insurance companies to stand between us and our doctors. I have gone through three major surgical procedures. I was seriously injuried in January of 1990 and needed surgury immediately. The HMO exec who handled my case delayed that for many months and I did not get the surgery until October of that year. There was no rational reason for the delay except for the exec's reluctance to take on the expense. I finally hired a lawyer and two weeks later, I was on the operating table. The surgury was a great success. Letting insurance companies decide who to treat and who to let suffer is not a good system.
Too many americans are being taken advantage of by insurance companies who are only interested in the bottom line and bonus payments to their agents.
It is time to end the control these greedy companies have over health care it is time to give birth to the baby and nurture it to something worthwhile.
Comment: #5
Posted by: robert lipka
Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:22 PM
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Susan and I are both Jewish; she a liberal and I a conservative. It is heartening that we are in sync over the so called 'health reform'. It is interesting that when each of us operates in our own self interest that we can agree, because we obviously have the same values with regard to our health and the health of our children. Thank you Susan for your honesty.
Comment: #6
Posted by: Bea
Wed Jul 22, 2009 7:21 PM
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Wow! I never thought I would agree with a big-government liberal like Ms Estrich, but she hit the nail on the head with Summer In Washington. Maybe I really can grow green, gauzy wings and fly to the moon under my own power. If she has come around, perhaps other big-government types will have courage enough to see the danger in THIS (they have missed it on the rest) massive intrusion of government into the private sector. Maybe Susan, with her Washington connections, can turn the heads of other Democrat Progressives (I think that is the term they prefer to Liberal these days) in Congress toward reason and sanity. My "progressive" senators don't give a rip what I think, but maybe they will listen to one of their own. If she can help derail this pending disaster, I may have to check out those wings.
Comment: #7
Posted by: ticapie
Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:18 PM
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Well I thought I would never agree with a liberal, so there can be a first time! It should send a strong message to Washington's elite that pushing something down our throats will be met with heated anger from all concerned!
Comment: #8
Posted by: Ken Wells
Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:43 AM
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Susan I agree with you on this point. Seems to me that the people sitting in Washington DC only want to ram another bill down the peoples throats like the Cap & Trade Bill which they did not even read. To me it does not matter which party is in office and has the power as long as they pass responsible bills that benefit the majority of Americans. However, from what I have gathered to be true this bill currently being peddled is not even liked by a majority of the Democrats. So why not call a Time Out and go back to the drawing board and get all the Congress and Senators on board with a program that will truly benefit all Americans.
When President Obama used the Red Pill and Blue Pill analysis last night I thought here goes the Democrats vs. Republican states in a clever twisters. Leave politics out of it and think of the American people, not the party.
I would also be against any bill that does not include the President, Congress, Senate, government employees, military and union members who are currently excluded. If it is a true national health bill then it must include each and every one of these people.
Comment: #9
Posted by: Gene44
Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:31 AM
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Good for you, Susan! As a conservative who nevertheless enjoys seeing you on Fox, I agree 100% with you! We do not need this trek toward socialism and rationed care!! Stand tall against the nonsense! Debbie in NH
Comment: #10
Posted by: Debbie
Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:09 AM
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Hi Susan, Another Conservative who reads your column all the time, and very often do not agree with you. But, on this I agree 100%. I have a lot of respect for you even though we do not share the same ideology. You don't compromise your beliefs by using your objectivity. I saw that a while back when you wrote a heartwarming tribute to Tony Snow, when the liberal press all but ignored the fact that he had suffered so much and passed away from cancer. Your influence could be helpful here, and keep us from socialized medicine.
Comment: #11
Posted by: vonnie bates
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:46 AM
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Susan, You are one of the few liberals I can listen to. Don't usually agree, but you obviously have no taste for coolaid. Caught you on Sean's show this afternoon and of course I agree with you, and admire you for standing on your principles and daring to buck the great one. Attagirl! Dare I say, before I knew what the deal was, I was pulling for you to replace Alan. Tell Sean we are getting tired of Bob Beckel and want to see more Susan Estrich.
Comment: #12
Posted by: Trish Hoffmann
Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:36 PM
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Funny how tolerant liberals cannot tolerate the unfavorable opinions of others while they spew their brand of sexism, racism, and hate. Thanks for deleting my comment, Susan. Such actions make me even more confident that I am right about you.
Comment: #13
Posted by: William Simmons
Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:48 AM
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I find it funny how tolerant liberals, demanding their right to spew their brand of sexism, racism, and hate refuse to allow opposing opinions of others.
Thanks for deleting my comment, Susan. Such actions make me even more confident that I am right about you.
(I reworded this post as the first one seemed a bit ambiguous)
Comment: #14
Posted by: William Simmons
Sat Jul 25, 2009 4:53 AM
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Just read your column about people who can't find work. Didn't it occur to you that THAT's the problem with the present health care scheme and why something must be done? When you lose your job,you lose your employer-subsidized insurance. Get it? Do you think that everyone who loses a job in a recession is a bum who doesn't deserve health care-or-that they should have saved $100,000 for the "rainy day" they might lose their insurance? I am so tired of hearing from conservatives--and now YOU--who are opposing reform before it's even fleshed out and put whole before us on the grounds that it MIGHT take something from you, the lucky ones who have never lost a job with insurance or enough cash in the bank to cover your medical needs. But of course you don't feel LUCKY or blessed or fortunate, do you? You feel SUPERIOR to those of us who have lost a job and insurance. You think you have EARNED your health benefits by working harder than the rest of us, being smarter with your money, being more responsible or moral, taking better care of your health. Why don't you just say what you mean? "I've got mine. The rest of you can rot." Don't guess you'd get paid so highly for such a short column.
Comment: #15
Posted by: Laurie Craw
Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:16 PM
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