I think people know where I stand with regards to the Healthcare Reform. I'm a pragmatic progressive, and I disagree entirely with Dennis Kucinich (who may switch his vote tomorrow) and Michael Moore. But let me explain, through the eyes of a GOP Lobbyist, why this bill should pass.
Why This Republican is PRAYING for ObamaCare
This constant bickering on the rec list has to end. I know I've been known to engage in that, but this is not the time for this. The time is to pass the bill. Trying to get people to change their minds, either Kucinich, Moore or vice versa, them trying to change mine, will not work. The only thing left is to demonstrate why this fight is so important.
I couldn't find a better example than this GOP Lobbyist who has been working with Republicans for years, and was actually an advisor to a high ranking one. Ironically? He's supporting Reform. That should give people some thought as to where the country actually stands on this issue.
I’m a healthy (haven’t missed a day of work in 4 years), well-off (if things go well, I could make $200,000 this year), thirty-something Republican policy wonk. I donated to John McCain’s Presidential campaign. Good friends of mine held prominent positions in the Bush White House. I worked at a senior level for a big-name Republican politician. The last few months, I’ve helped several clients (Republican pols and trade associations you’ve heard of) try and throw cold water on President Obama’s health care plan. Indeed, large parts of the plan — subsidies for the middle class, greatly increased regulation of the private economy, and the genuine threat of health care rationing — offend my political beliefs. But, personally, I’d like to see Obamacare become law.
He explains why this bill will help him and particularly why he thinks he would be better off with it.
I’ll cut to the chase: I couldn’t ever handle my wife’s current health problems without insurance and the current precarious state of my own health coverage causes me tremendous anxiety and leads me to personally support the Democratic agenda for health care reform. As a result of chronic severe life-long asthma, a heart condition, and a lifetime of terrible medical luck — a broken arm that developed a bone infection in her 20s — she’s a physical wreck, entirely unable to work. I’m quite sure that no individual insurer would (or should) ever write an individual policy that includes her unless obligated to by law.
Even with a pretty good income of my own and the resources of our families we’d have enormous difficulty paying anything close to the medical bills my wife has run up without very comprehensive insurance. One stay she had at a major hospital cost over $130,000 and afterwards my then-employer’s HR director all but accused her of raising health insurance premiums for everyone in the office. (She was right.) A recent visit to the emergency room that included an MRI cost over $10,000. And I haven’t even seen the tab for her most recent 3-day hospital stay.
For now, largely thanks to President Obama’s policies, none of this is a major problem even though my co-pays and deductibles can exceed $500 a month (and our health insurance is, by all accounts, a very solid PPO plan). The federal government picks up about half of the health premium from the job my wife held before she got too sick to work — I made too much to qualify for the full 65 percent subsidy now available — but even this won’t last forever. We have about 7 months left on the subsidy and another few after COBRA runs out altogether.
How many people do you think opposing the bill are in these same straits? How many people do you think will benefit in the same way this GOP lobbyist will?
I understand there are individuals who think this bill should be better. I certainly think so. There are folks who support single payer and folks who support "market based solutions" and both of these folks are coming out in full support of the bill. So while certain segments of both parties are not acting constructively, we need to keep folks like this in mind.
Because, our overall goal is to help people like that. Not play political games into how everything was better or not.