Day: October 6, 2009

Illegal Immigration And Health Care

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The movement toward health care reform specifically eliminates any illegal or undocumented immigrant from coverage, and this is one of the most politically incendiary principles brought up by opponents of any legislation.

President Obama has also made it clear that no such illegals will be covered, and no one is openly willing to face the issue that presents itself daily. What is to be done if an illegal or undocumented alien is taken ill or injured in an accident?

Are we to refuse medical treatment and let such an individual die? Are we to turn our backs on such people, and treat them as less significant than a pet?

This is the quandary we are in. The fact that someone is illegal is a major problem, but can we just dump such people on the street and let them die, particularly when many of the illegals are young people? If denial of care is seen as desirable, what if such a person has a communicable disease?

This is an issue that torments people of religious faith, and anyone who believes in human decency and dignity. The cost of such care is estimated to be about one billion dollars. Are we to allow money to take away our responsibility to fellow human beings, even if they are “illegal”?

This is a question of conscience, not easily addressed or answered!

Health Insurance Company Abuse Supported By Several States Regarding “Domestic Violence”

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As part of the health care reform being considered by Congress, the push is on to ban “domestic violence” against women as a “preexisting condition” that prevents battered women from being eligible to be covered.

Is there anything more venal and disgusting than this? And to think that several states still allow that to be a factor in limiting health care coverage! The guilty states, which should be ashamed of themselves, include Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho, plus, unbelievably, the District of Columbia! How in the world can any state or jurisdiction allow this? How can we, in good conscience, allow in the past, present or future that any health insurance company is permitted to justify this in the name of decency?

This is another reason why, despite great fears by many people and most conservatives and Republicans, that we cannot continue to allow health care to be totally controlled by private corporations and backward states that have no concern for human dignity!

The federal government option MUST be offered so that everyone in this country is allowed to have dignity when it comes to health care!

Five Prominent Republicans Back Obama Push For Health Care

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It is great news to see that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson in calling for an overhaul of the health care system through support of President Obama’s push for reform. Also, as reported earlier, Bob Dole and Howard Baker, two other GOP Senate Majority Leaders from earlier times, have backed the need for change.

Only one Republican senator, Olympia Snowe of Maine, seems willing to move in that direction, and the fact that four significant Republicans from the past and the governor of our largest state are breaking ranks with the “just say No” Republicans in Congress is therefore an encouraging move.

Obama has also met with a group of doctors from the the fifty states, as he is becoming more intimately involved in pushing for what a majority of Americans say is essential–to change the nature of our health care system so that we finally bring almost all Americans under the umbrella of protection, a step that should have occurred long ago!