Monday, March 22, 2010

Major Flaws in the Health Care Reform Package--Homeless

Having spent long hours reading and attempting to digest the health care bill the flaws are overwhelming. I keep hearing that this will cut the deficit by over 100 billion dollars in the next decade, and yet in the same paragraph we hear that the plan will cost more than 900 billion over the next decade. I'm sorry, Mr. President, I don't understand these figures. My basic math classes taught me that if I was 100 in the red and I spent another 900 dollars, instead of saving money I would wind up 1,000 in the red.
I'm also one of those middle class americans that makes too much to qualify for government assistance and too little to afford any more insurance premiums. In the last 10 years I have spent less than $500.00 on health care. I don't have insurance and therefore I can't run to the doctor every time I get a cold, and I do everything in my power to stay healthy for those same reasons. This is the second flaw. Your plans are not going to help me. I have a pre-existing illness so I would be forced into a high risk policy. Combine that with my age, and well, sir, you're not helping me--you're hurting me. I might as well quit work and go on welfare and disability and become a burden on an already overburdened nation.
Another major flaw. The homeless in America. According to the best estimates available, which of course are presumably low, 2.5 to 3.0 million people are experiencing homelessness. They won't be counted on the census. They have no homes and no addresses, so how can your plan be enforced, number 1, and what good is it going to do these people? They need jobs, homes, food, clothing. They aren't dying from lack of health care, they're dying from NEGLECT. Of the figures 42% have no shelter whatsoever, and these figures are expected to climb in the next two years.
I've heard the statement over and over that "we had to do something" or "passing anything is better than doing nothing". Where is the logic in that attitude? Pass a bad bill, with no set funding source, flawed in innumberable respects just so the administration can say, "hey we can show the people".
According to the CDC over 11 million children in this country go to bed hungry EVERY NIGHT. 11 million CHILDREN. How would this administraton feel if their children didn't have enough to eat, or were forced to sleep out in the cold, because they have no home? That's okay. You've ignored it this long, while you wasted billions that could have fed those children. Housed those children. Or created jobs for their parents. Have a cigarette. Have a beer. Celebrate. Somewhere out there tonight a child is dying from starvation and/or exposure. Enjoy a nice hot meal. Sleep in a nice warm bed. We have forced health care now, so perhaps these children can wrap up in the paper of the policy, thereby not freezing. Or perhaps they can nibble on the paper. They'll still be hungry, but perhaps they won't starve. It's okay, though, I mean lack of health care is what caused their death right?