It was horrible that the Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate who mildly supported the public option, already embraced by the U.S. House, believed it was compelled to drop that part of their health care proposal because the Senate Republicans and renegade Democrats would not stomach it. Now, it's being said that the extension of Medicare to people between 55 and 64 years old is also dead in the water, so to speak, because some of the same individuals do not wish to swim in that direction.
What is the problem with expanding health care and reforming a failed and failing system in order to increase the number of citizens who have access to quality and affordable medical insurance and care? The spiraling costs of health care have been oppressive for decades, and our governmental leaders have failed to ensure that every person has reasonable opportunity to avail themselves of what is needed to sustain a physically robust lifestyle. I realize some administrations have tried, and some have worked valiantly to curtail the outrageous costs of medical care, health insurance, and prescription medication. With millions of people unable to afford basic care, and in the midst of an economic crisis the rebound from which has not significantly reached the masses of people, the denial of a fundamental existential need such as that which sustains basic health is simply unconscionable and immoral.
A health care bill that does not include a public option mocks real reform. A single-payer system, in my opinion, would be ideal. However, the ostensible compromise of a moderate expansion of Medicare down to those ten years younger than the current insurance allows also caricatures the recognition that our system is broken and excludes countless millions of people. Certainly, in the realm of negotiation, there must be some way that a Democratic Congress and a Democratic administration can compel those who arrogantly oppose real health reform to vote in favor of substantive change in favor of the consumer. Fear of filibusters and other tactics should not change the direction on the moral compass for those who staked their political careers on finally making constructive, innovative, and expansive health care reform the law of the land.
This is a fight that should not be relinquished. The Senate must find a way to get the numbers where they need to be without compromising out the very items that adequately cover the tens of millions who have been categorically locked out of access to quality, affordable care for many decades.
