Roger Ebert's Column on Heath Care Reform

[mucifer]

Doing the right thing. Life Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness.


The Supreme Court has done us all a kindness. Obamacare shows the human community working at its best. For me, that's what it finally comes down to. If all of us, even the least fortunate, have access to competent medical attention, isn't that a wonderful thing? The poor, the old, the unemployed, those with pre-existing conditions?

It is useful to keep the focus on the good that Obamacare will bring about. If you read the papers or watch TV, you can get caught up in a blizzard of confusing claims and statistics and political ideology. You might somehow get the idea this is all about raising taxes, or taking away your freedom, or that it's an assault by the federal government on states' rights. Those complaints are not about Health Care. They lead directly back to the controlling beliefs of the Obamacare opponents--that government is not to be trusted, that taxes are bad, that we must oppose "federal bureaucracy." These are short-term political talking points, used from the first in the fight against this legislation. They were outlined by those who make billions from our overpriced health care system, and parroted by the beneficiaries of their shadowy PACs.

In the long term, Obamacare will work itself out and be perfected through countless tweaks and improvements. It is like that with all major new legislation. Remember that those groups who are most fierce in opposing Obamacare also fought against Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Federal Food and Drug Administration, and other attempts to improve the quality of life at the cost of corporate profits. Today they are lined up against measures that would regulate pesticides and work to slow Global Warming. Follow the money. Obamacare would help sick people. Opposing it would protect the income of corporations that feed off them--in part, by allowing them to abandon those whose "pre-existing conditions" might curtail profits.

More at: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/06/post_6.html

[obamanut2012]

1. Worth the read -- k & r

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. roger's suffered a lot.

nice to see him being so active, even now.

[riderinthestorm]

3. Eberts seen the health care industry in agonizing detail

When you are sitting in the chemo chairs lined up with all the rest, nobody's special. You chat and spend your hours in conversations with whoever gets placed next to you. Some of the stories are heartbreaking and you realize that its just a quirk of fate that YOU have great health care (insurance and/or money to pay the co-pays, drugs etc) and the woman next to you does not.

You begin to really understand that health care shouldn't be distributed based upon one's access to money. That woman's family who are all sitting with her in the chemo room love her just as much and deserve to have her around to help raise them as much as anyone else on the planet.

Ebert's one of the good ones. A caring guy whose really seen it first hand and 'gets" it.

Great article. Thanks for posting.

[xxqqqzme]

8. your post is not shabby.

All you write is so true.

[Raster]

10. What a wonderful response to an outstanding original post. Thank you.

So please, someone explain to me: why ISN'T it a good thing for EVERYONE to have access to quality, compassionate health care?

[Hoyt]

13. Excellent post. "Health care shouldn't be distributed based upon . . . . . .money."

The government budget folks might have to figure out how to pay for it in the aggregate, but how it filters down to the people who need it shouldn't be based on one's monetary wealth.

I remember when my father-in-law had to have dialysis to survive a few more years. There were people at the dialysis clinic who were very poor, very sick, many having lost their legs or mobility through diabetes and kidney disease. But, they were quick with a smile and compassion to everyone who walked in, wheeled in, or were carried in at 5:30 in the morning ready for 4 or 5 ours of debilitating treatment. It was actually something you have to experience, and is something I will never forget.

Great post.

[Scurrilous]

4. K & R

[BumRushDaShow]

5. HUGE HUGE K&R

And certainly Ebert has had to personally deal with the industry over the years.

[Stuart G]

6. Roger has been a Democrat for over 40 years.

I think he worked in the office of a Democrat right out of university , or when he was attending the U of I. He has always been
a progressive. I recall he was writing other stuff, when they offered him this movie critic job. Maybe mid 60s..or a little later.
Almost all reviews he has ever written are online for free.

[mucifer]

7. yeah. I often don't agree with his reviews of movies. But, it doesn't matter. He writes so well with

such humor and fun. And his blog is great.

[Carolina]

9. K&R

[nolabear]

11. Simple, and utterly true. K&R

[riderinthestorm]

12. Morning kick! nt