A Rhetorical Commentary for Healthcare Reform

by Sherice

Health care reform, a “hot ticket item” on the list of promises of the then Senator Barack Obama on his Presidential campaign trail, is now the double edged sword of issues on his list of deliverables to the American people which has resulted in vehement debates, mass protests, arrests and controversy over the one-thousand page health care reform initiative.

Exactly why is the country in total debacle over an issue that seemed to speak to the very needs of the good people of America? Wasn’t health care a rudiment concern of the woman in Idaho, the young family in Texas, the struggling senior citizen in Nebraska? The American people are, all too well, aware of the agonizing wait time in the hospital emergency rooms around the country whose only offense is being without health care. To answer this issue, President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which avails 11 million children to quality health care (4 million who were previously uninsured), American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which safeguards people through a 65% COBRA subsidy for those who lose their jobs in an effort to make health care affordable, and the Recovery Act.

To many, this is true progress, a one hundred eighty degree turn from the former Bush administration. But wait, the irony of the health care reform debate is not the provision of health care for the masses of the American people. Or is it? Is it a question of funding sources to finance such an initiative? Will it undercut or even threaten one’s “good” health insurance to support others who have no health insurance? Or is there an underlying issue that one dares not to speak?

Well, let’s assess the need for health reform in the first place. Health care reform, simply put, was the backdrop of the 2009 Presidential campaign. It was the key issue that Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama intensely debated to parenthetically state who had the better understanding and moreover the solution. This fact, speaks to the irrefutable truth that health care, as we have known it, should not and cannot go unchallenged. It is in need of dire reform.

The obvious question is HOW? Well, this is where the vehement debates come in. The infamous 1,000+ page initiative is under rapid fire from many critics. There is no bipartisan support for the initiative. Yet, there is a general consensus that it is flawed.

So where are the fine, brilliant minds on the Hill to produce a better initiative or, to improve on the existing one? Certainly, if the staff of the President can produce what many would call a pretty decent start to address health care reform, where is the input to “take it over the top?” Could it be that there is no intent to support President Obama on the health care reform? Maybe to Congress, health care reform will evaporate into thin air and refocus the attention on what America’s preoccupation … WAR! As the bipartisan Congress masks its contention with the President by nitpicking with opinions and semantics, it is plain view (to those that are awake) that the undercurrent of health care reform is to shift the American opinion by undermining the proposed solution with “data” that disproves the President’s convoluted initiative. We’ve seen it before. Statistical data can be skewed to guide the American people to move in the intended direction... like sheep or cattle.

“I’m angry with the Democrats who are not standing by the President. He has laid out what he wants and feels is best for America. We can now do what could not be done under Bush and the Democrats need to stand up. They need to create the consciousness in their districts to get this done. When Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement first met with Bobby Kennedy, he was an obstacle in their way. Then, Dr. King told Harry Belafonte, Andrew Young, and others to find Bobby Kennedy’s moral center and bring him to their cause and the cause of Civil Rights. Bobby Kennedy then became a convert to the cause and when that happened, he not only joined the movement, but became a voice for it. The Democrats need to do the same. They are so busy worrying about the next election that they are failing to bring their constituents to their moral center. The Republicans have already decided that they will be a problem for President Obama as long as he is in office. But, I don’t get the Democrats who elected him and are not doing what was set out to do.” Father Michael Pfleger, Pastor of St. Sabina

Parallel to health care reform let’s look closely at the American trends that undergird health care. For example, can we see how Americans are getting fatter and more obese with the heavy dependency on highly processed foods, alcohol, prescription drugs, illegal drugs, steroids, and the like? If preventive health is not the bedrock of health care reform, how can Congress refute the President’s push for reform? Is it that they truly disagree and can offer solid edits to the initiative?

This gridlock on the issue speaks volumes to who Congress truly represents. If you can see, (again, to those who are awake), the American people are pushing in the same direction as the President for reform, though it may not be perfect. It can be perfected enough to satisfy the people. But the major insurance corporations, the not so hidden hands who are moving through Congress like a magic wand dictating the shots. Is it that obvious? Certainly, it is! However, remember the bigger picture, Congress has bigger fish to fry. Health care reform is not as big a return on investment as in winning the war in Afghanistan, or Iraq or even the new target in the military scope, Iran. So, as Congress, shifts its focus away from health care reform by belittling the efforts of the President and the strides he is making to fulfill his promise of change we can believe in, the public option is made to appear ineffective, convoluted, unworthy of Congressional support because it’s too expensive.

“The Public Option has to be included. To remove it makes it a bill that will not be about health care, it will be about supporting health insurance companies who want to control the issue. The debate should have started with a single payer, universal health care coverage bill for all citizens. Starting with a weaker public option gives the opposition ammunition. If we succeed with the public option in the bill, it literally pulls power from the Republican power base and that’s a major coup. The balance of political power is at stake but this is not a political issue. It is a moral issue.” Reverend Otis Moss, III, Senior Pastor of Trinity UCC

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