As politicians in Washington draw lines in the plush carpets of Capitol Hill, belch illogical notions of nationwide economic collapse and crank theatrics on a near-empty Senate floor, they forget that the essential reason for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is to give millions of Americans a chance to buy medical insurance to fit their needs and financial circumstances.
They ignore the fact that these millions — their fellow citizens who have gone without health exams for themselves and their children, who dread any kind of major injury or hospitalization, who have diseases that keep them from earning a living because they can’t bear the expense for treatment — have been looking forward to Oct. 1 when the law will allow them to get insurance and the kind of medical care all members of Congress are blessed with.
They use uninsured Americans as human barter in ideological battles, tying funds for the law to a measure to finance the government and to require construction of an environmentally reckless oil pipeline.
It’s not that members of the House and Senate are unfeeling or mean-spirited at their cores, but it is doubtful that many of them, particularly the tea party faction of the Republican Party, can see beyond their myopic determination to dominate in the next election and to damage the president who managed to push the law through.
So they are willing, if not eager, to shut down the government on Oct. 1 to get their way. They are willing to push furloughs on government workers who then would not be able to pay their mortgages and light bills; to stall research projects to stem devastating wildfires, among other things; cut off online services; and hold back money owed to contractors and suppliers.
They disguise their opposition to the president’s measure with invalid claims they are doing what Americans want.
Well, I know a whole lot of Americans without affordable health insurance and medical care who are looking forward to Oct. 1. They, like others, have already seen the benefits of the law that provides coverage for young adults through their parents’ policies. They have seen the growth rate in health care costs dip to its lowest level in decades and the fairness in requiring insurance companies to pay back consumers more than $500 million because of their overspending on non-medical functions.
Many of them also recognize that the law has flaws and needs changes to narrow gaps in employer-provided coverage, to expand the networks of insurers and medical practitioners and to entice states to handle their own insurance programs.
As with any new endeavor, implementing the multi-faceted law is incredibly complex. There are unanticipated problems, loopholes through which insurance companies, employers and even medical institutions are trying to wriggle through.
But the benefits for the whole of the nation are worth the trouble and the denizens of Washington would do great service to their country to put their heads down and personal agendas aside to make the law work. This can happen if Americans themselves demand it.
