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I caught this last night and intend to watch the un-cut version later today. They can be found here at the Daily Show website. If there's a regional problem associated, try YouTube. It's an interesting exercise in both the problems of the US governmental system and an object lesson in the mindset of some of those that work in it.
For those that don't know Betsy is the person who came up with the original thinking behind what has turned into the "Death Panels" hoopla. She's picked on some wording in the Bill that she interupts to mean that Doctor's will be targetted on getting patients to sign up for end-of-life activities.
The core problem though, as Jon Stewart showed, is the bill doesn't show that.
It's a frightening thing to watch and Stewart's "lady, you cannot have just said that" expression is used rather a lot. The point at which he asks to show him where it says what she says it says and she struggles to find it is a joy.
Of course, the real problem isn't so much just her, but the system that means that a bill to extend Healthcare runs to a 1000 pages.
The other problem as Ms McCaughey keeps showing is the mindset, that Republicans and others in lieu of actually having a clue, have adopted. Several times she says that she wants people to have Health Insurance - and she wants to make sure that the people who can't afford Health Insurance can get it.
But that's a distortion, or a willfully misleading statement to make. The problem is what consitutes "afford" in this context? Most people, if they can get insurance, can get a Catastrophic Cover policy which means they'll _probably_ not loose their home if they get Cancer/Need Surgery/Heart Attack, but they'll be out of pocket for day to day medical bills. Taking a case that is close to home for me: a friend is being treated for a very minor condition which is costing about $700 in drugs to fix. It's not life threatening but, un-treated, would basically hurt like hell all the time. How about somebody else on anti-depressants? You don't die if you don't take them, but your quality of life is in the toilet? How about asthma and allergy medication? That could be serious...
These are all conditions which, by rights, no for profit insurance company should go with, because asking for profit companies to insure people who are already SICK is plain stupid and there is no manipulation of the system to change that.
I happen to know that a comprehensive policy with no co-pays, not unlike what I would have had in the UK is about $1000 a month for 2 people. That's $12,000 a year... That's for a level of cover that I got from general taxation, regardless of the amount I earned in the UK. While that would actually be affordable at the income we used to have - it would hurt but be affordable - I can't imagine how people on lower incomes can afford premiums to offer them any kind of quality service that doesn't leave them completely screwed if they need treatment for practically anything.
As I start my own business and start to think about this I realise what a massive disincentive to creativity the US health system has become. As a startup, I can't possibly compete with larger companies for Healthcare. Attracting good staff, even in the current job market is a nightmare because you can't offer anything other than equity as a benefit and a lot of people, rightly, especially older ones with families, can't risk their family healthcare to join a start up.
The car and manufacturing companies can't compete with foreign companies who don't have to pay for healthcare costs for their employees, at least not outside of their general levels of taxation.
Somebody in authority, and preferably on the right, needs to grow the balls to accept that this is something that America cannot sustain and remain a world power.
