AliThinks

Angry

So last night history was made when the House of Representatives passed a Health Care Reform bill, 220-215.

Not to get all über-feminist on you, but it is truly HIStory. In this health care bill, women get the shaft. Pun intended. Let's all bend over, ladies.

I'd be elated that we are on the way to health care reform in this country if it weren't for a little thing called the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which will make it illegal for even private insurers to cover abortion costs. Planned Parenthood has a great explanation:

The Stupak/Pitts amendment violates the spirit of health care reform, which is meant to guarantee quality, affordable health care coverage for all. In fact, this amendment would create a two-tiered system that would punish women, particularly those with low and middle incomes, the very people this bill is intended to assist. The majority of private health insurance plans currently offer abortion coverage, and the Stupak/Pitts amendment would result in the elimination of private abortion coverage in the ‘exchange,’ the new insurance market created under health care reform, as well as in the public option, if one is created.

I'm angry, because although I'm lucky enough to be able to afford birth control (and an abortion, if I ever needed one), this amendment means that so many other women will not have access to such care.

Abortion is a legal procedure that has helped millions of women stay on course with the lives they want to lead. Nobody wants to have an abortion. But sometimes the condom breaks. Your antibiotic interferes with your Pill. Or, worse, you're the victim of rape and you get pregnant. 

It's unconscionable that health care coverage for a legal procedure is being tampered with, especially on the private level. (There's been no public funding for abortions, except in certain cases, since 1977.) 

This post is not meant to spark a moral debate on abortion. I am firmly pro-choice; I always have been and I always will be. If you think abortion is wrong, that's your prerogative. But as it's a legal (yes, I said it again. LEGAL.) medical procedure in this country, the debate needs to lie with whether the government has any right to legislate the private insurers' coverage of it.

I know, how ironic. I'm rooting for the private insurers on this one, but only because I'm rooting for women and their rights. And the Stupak-Pitt amendment relegates us to second-class citizen status.

On Health Care

Several weeks ago, in a comment to a ranty post about SUVs, a reader (Salut, Jean!) challenged me to write about the health care issue from the point of view of someone who's experienced a different system. 

Here, then, is How I See It:

• Health care should not be a privilege that only some can afford.
• Barack Obama is not a Marxist, or even a Socialist.
• I'm willing to pay taxes for roads, schools, police and fire protection, and libraries. I'm also willing to pay taxes for health insurance.
• My French example for Americans: I gave birth to two children over there. They were normal births, yet I stayed in the maternity ward for five days each time. The only charge was for the telephone line (I didn't have a cell phone at the time). Why such a long stay? To make sure both the babies and I were healthy. Preventive care, it's sometimes called.
• I had 200 € ($295) withheld from my last French paycheck for health care costs. 150 went into the national pool, 50 went to my mutuelle, or complementary insurance. That's a lot of money, but I never worried about what would happen to me financially if I had an accident or got really ill. Oh, and that was a monthly paycheck.
• We're all in this together.
• Healthy citizens make for a healthy country.
• If there is no public option in this health care reform, then it's not reform.
• Medicare and the VA system are socialist ideas that (mostly) work for different sections of the population. We need a system for everybody.

There's more, of course, but that's just a short list of top-of-my-head thoughts. I read a great blog entry by comic strip author Dan Piraro yesterday, and I encourage you to read it too. Here's a select quote: 

People opposing health care are afraid the government will control their lives. Right now, huge corporations control our lives by controlling our health care and virtually every other aspect of our lives. At least I can vote against a government. I have no recourse against CEOs.

I encourage you to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. I'd love for some of my American bloggers in France to pipe up. If you disagree with me, pipe up. Oh, and I will answer comments with comments, rather than a personal email.

On Tea Parties

I'd heard about the Tea Party thing, because there was one in Lexington a couple of weeks ago, and the Tea Partiers were upset that our local paper didn't cover their event. I thought that the Herald-Leader probably didn't have enough reporters, seeing as how they'd just laid off a bunch of staff.

This past Saturday, Allan and I were walking around Pittsburgh's North Side Shore Side Shore, when we happened upon a Tea Party. Alan Keyes was the keynote speaker, and while we didn't stick around to hear his speech, we did get to see him dump tea (or some facsimile thereof) into the Allegheny River.

I took a few photos, which you can see here. We did hear some words from the man who organized this particular Tea Party. I didn't catch his name, but he did say that Congress passed the stimulus bill without even reading it. The crowd cheered, and I said "What about the PATRIOT Act?" No one heard me except Allan and maybe the woman with the Sarah Palin button on her hat; we were on the Roberto Clemente bridge, and the speakers were on Allegheny Landing.

And then the man said, "There are laws, laws we have to obey. Can you imagine that I had to get a permit to exercise my First Amendment rights?" The crowd cheered, and I said "Maybe because it's a question of public safety, and no one is infringing on your First Amendment rights?" He went on to say that the government was above the law. I'd say it is, because no one challenged George W. Bush's decimation of our Constitution.

I can't say I didn't understand some of the sentiments I witnessed on Saturday. I did. But most of the signs the folks were holding had me saying "Really?" à la Kyle (or Stan — I can't remember which one said it, in which episode, but it was a high-pitched, head-tilted question) from South Park.

I also can't say I'm happy about the whole stimulus thing, but I'd like to know what the opposition has in mind, and I want them to spell out how it will be better than what the Obama administration has done so far.