Here’s my take on the health care summit:
- Underneath the talking points, there was a theme from the Republicans: We do not want people with pre-existing conditions to be covered. They had to admit that in public. If you weren’t listening, I’ll try and find you the exact point where it came through loud and clear.
- The President made it clear that his priorities begin and end with those who are left behind. His pointed questioning about whether GOP Senators would be willing to give up their health plans through the Senate for a high-deductible plan with a health savings account. While they said yes, he pointed out that they can afford it with $176,000 in salary, as opposed to those of us who are scraping it together on $40,000 a year.
- Mitch McConnell affirmed that the Republicans have no intention of coming together on health care reform in his press conference afterward.
- The value of this summit was lost in talking points and repetitive distraction. A better use of time would have been to take real-life cases and apply the law to them as exemplars of how reform would impact real people.
I’m sure I have more, but honestly, I’m just so disgusted with the idea that people think it’s okay to discriminate against people who are unfortunate enough to get sick that I really can’t think clearly.
