white male consumer

So while things have been quiet around here, I’ve been following the healthcare debate closely. Kucinich’s change of heart mid last week coincided with mine, and so I was pleased with Representative Scott Murphy’s decision to vote in favor – and relieved when the final tallies were announced late last night.

My line of thinking is now along the lines that this legislation is (or at least, can be, optimistically assuming the best possible outcome – a great leap of faith) better than nothing. Nothing, coming after more than a year of effort on the part of the Democrats, always the consummate lesser of two evils. A failure here, pragmatically spelling the end of Hope with a capital H, and putting any future reform efforts on the back burner for another decade plus.

With two-thousand plus pages of legislation, I won’t make any claims to understanding anything beyond the easily digestible bullet points being paraded in the news. Earlier, I became hopeful that this legislation would actually affect me in the near term, with the clause allowing dependent children to stay on their parent’s plans till the age of 26. I am most definitely still dependent on my parents, and I am also under the age of 26 for another whopping three months. My eagerness to get back on the roles isn’t borne from my pre-existing condition (T2 diabetes – still very much under control), but for the recent ultimatum on my wisdom teeth – they’s gotsta go! (For years their place was secure, since apparently I have the jaw line and accompanying mouth space of one of homo sapien’s earlier ancestors. But while the top pair have come in fine, the bottoms still aren’t completely through, and the determination has been made that they need to come out. And the older I get, the less chance of my gums healing properly.)

But from what I can tell, this piece of the healthcare legislation won’t be applicable in my case. First off, although this is purportedly one of the pieces enacted immediately, I still found word that there is a six month grace period involved. Secondly, I can’t figure out whether this is applicable at all for all of the 21-26 year olds who’ve already been kicked off – can we just sign back on, or are we in a loophole? Thirdly, the wisdom teeth would most likely be deemed a “pre-existing condition” and not covered even if I was able to get insured for the next three months. (Pre-existing conditions will be a thing of the past for adults by 2014, children (real children) immediately.) Fourthly, and last, I just found out that New York has already had legislation that allows unmarried children to remain on their parent’s insurance – until the age of 30!

I don’t recall what age I was when I was kicked off of my parent’s insurance. It seemed an arbitrary age, and I remember it being before I even graduated from college. While attending, I had some very low cost plan associated with the college and assumed it would cover anything catastrophic. And I was uninsured when diagnosed with diabetes two years ago. I am not enthused at my chances of being re-enrolled, as the current for-profit healthcare system stands to gain nothing by having me insured getting proper medical treatment at an affordable cost. Therein lies the fundamental problem, an issue never at task over the past year of partisan squabbling.

Still, although I am yet another instance of an uninsured individual who will likely see nothing come from this legislation in the short term, I feel like I can only hope for the best in that the CBO estimates show some savings to be had, long term, nationally. If this effort was sunk, reform would not be attempted again, and this would undoubtedly result in a worsening of the crippled system – by the CBO’s own estimates. Further skyrocketing costs, millions more uninsured, more and more of the same.

It is hard to feel any satisfaction, or to even see this as a “victory.” Healthcare reform has been a significant issue for me for several election cycles. Watching the political process over the past year neuter the most substantial reforms has been disheartening. This legislative success looks to do nothing for the thousands still dying for lack of care. Perhaps the sense of victory will hold them over until 2014 or whenever the applicable parts of the bill come into effect. Premiums will surely increase astronomically while health insurance companies have free reign to do so.

Watching the whole debacle, I’m taken aback by the unscrupulousness of the Republicans, Waterloo-ing the issue the whole time; and by the emasculated nature of the Dems, incapable of passing substantial reform while in control of both Congress and the presidency. It’s hard to see how any progress can be made under this system.