Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Holiday Blog

This has been quite a year. We have watched a sometimes torturous process unfold in Washington that while it may not have delighted health policy purists, promises to be the most substantial effort this country has made in a century to join the other industrialized countries on our planet in trying to extend Health Insurance coverage to a majority of our citizens.

Since the howls from the right that we have “gone way too far” seem to be balanced from the screams from the left that we have “barely done anything of value” my intuition before even reading all 2,000 pages is that we have done what we most often do as a democracy…we have found a middle that moves us towards a laudable goal.

Since the final scene has not been produced it is too early to pass out Academy Awards for this production, but in the spirit of the season I do think it is timely that I pass out a few Holiday Gifts to some of the more prominent players in the 2009 production. I think ten would be the right number to give as we come to the end of the decade.

First, Senator Ben Nelson gets no gift from me, since he seems to have gotten more than his fair share of gifts all by himself.

Second, Senator Joe Liebermann gets the biggest hunk of coal that Senator Jay Rockefeller can mine in West Virginia for coming out against a Medicare buy-in three months after he proposed the idea.

Third, our own Senator Jeanne Shaheen gets a picture of herself sitting as the Presiding Officer of the Senate announcing the vote for cloture early Monday morning. The picture will be signed by everyone in New Hampshire who wishes they could look that poised at 1:00 A.M after listening to hours of Senate debate.

Fourth, Senator Harry Reid gets a ping pong table so that he can challenge people to a contest in which you only have to count to 21 to win rather than 60.

Fifth, all the talking heads on every cable network get a continuous loop DVD of themselves predicting certain victory or certain defeat every 24 hours based on the in-depth interviews they have done with each other on what is and it not happening. Actually the gift would be not forcing them (or us) to have to watch them for at least the next 12 months.

Sixth, about 30 million people in our country over the coming years (assuming we get a final bill) will be able to go to sleep at night with the knowledge that they will have insurance to cover care when they need it. I would imagine that to be a very welcome gift indeed.

Seventh, Karen Ager of the Endowment for Health gets a bouquet of seasonal flowers to thank her for the daily news round-up of state and national news on health she gets out first thing every morning that lets us all seem far more informed than we would otherwise be on what is happening around us.

Eighth, I would like to give Senator Liebermann my own hunk of coal because I just re-read this list and every time I think about his performance it just re-annoys me.

Ninth, I would like to give the leadership of the House, the Senate and the President the gift of patience and a sense of history to allow them to finish this journey over the coming weeks that has taken us decades to complete.

Finally, I would like to give all of us who care about the health care system the gift of courage and a sense of confidence as we begin to build a new and inclusive system here in the state. This is a system that needs to serve the people and enhance their health. We’ve not done as well as we need to, but I am confident that we have the capacity to change that.

Have a great 2010.
Ned Helms

P.S. You should each feel free to send Joe your own piece of coal if the spirit moves you.

Tags: Happy Holidays, health Insurance, Health Reform, Insurance Coverage

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Health Reform. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.