by Gail Kerry

Created on: January 21, 2010   Last Updated: April 25, 2010

The recent election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown does not need to spell the end of health-care reform if our elected officials begin listening to the voters instead of their respective party’s political agendas. The process by which Democrats need to begin anew is simple. 

They must scratch the current bill in its entirety and begin with components that are common to both parties, such as elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions and waiting periods for all individuals in any health care plan to ensure access to care for all Americans. 

Very few citizens would disagree with this component of health care reform.  Health insurance companies claim that all Americans must first have insurance in order for this to be accomplished, (hence the “public option”), but that is just what they would have us believe, because it would be costly to cover them.   

We must reject the idea that in order to cover pre-existing conditions all individuals must be insured. We must also reject discrimination among insurance companies the same way that we eliminated discrimination with Fair Housing Laws. Why should insurance companies charge more for women than men?

More importantly, Democrats must understand that Americans are fed up with the “politics-as-usual” games that occurred behind closed doors granting special privileges to Louisiana and Nebraska, in order to get the votes necessary to reach a consensus.

American voters are not stupid and they want President Obama to get the message that the transparency he promised is crucial. We know that large health insurance companies have lobbyists waiting in the wings with big money for both political parties in order to achieve their agenda.

Democrats must reject the arrogant attitude that comes with holding a party majority, which similarly led to the downfall of the Republicans in the early ‘90’s. The majority party must reach out and gain bi-partisan support for health care reform as this joint collaboration is tantamount to asking the American people they want in health care reform. 

After all, voters were the ones who elected all the GOP representatives whose opinions were ignored in structuring the current bill.

Many Americans currently covered under employee insurance programs have no idea of how health care reform will ultimately impact their pocketbook and details need to be thoroughly explained to all Americans before we can be expected to support such a significant change. 

Will the already over-burdened middle class be expected to pick up the tab for presently uninsured Americans?  This is the same sleight-of-hand method recently utilized to fund the recently passed S-CHIP bill at the expense of smokers, who were shocked to find out cigarette prices nearly doubled overnight, but at least uninsured children now had health insurance.

What about hot button issues like abortion? Do you think that a citizen vehemently opposed to abortion would support a health care reform bill that will allow for government funded abortions?

While many voters were asking themselves these questions, we heard President Obama and Nancy Pelosi declaring victory over passing a bill that we, the people, didn’t agree to or have the opportunity to debate.    

Thank you Massachusetts voters for getting our message home to Washington. We need health care reform but we also need the transparency that President Obama promised before being elected. We would also like to decide for ourselves what we want and don’t want in a bill as important as health care reform.

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