Dr. John Geyman thinks so. Whether or not you agree, it’s worth considering his argument. He writes:

The negatives far outweigh the positives, and adopting this bill would delay real reform for years to come. Despite a chorus of accolades about the bill by its supporters, even comparing it with the historic importance of Social Security and Medicare, this monster bill instead bears the heavy imprint of corporate stakeholders who themselves are largely responsible for out-of-control health care costs. After months of lobbying and campaign contributions to legislators crafting the legislation, their multiple conflicts of interest and political compromises, this bill ends up being a bailout for the insurance industry and a bonanza for stakeholders in the medical industrial complex.

Read Geyman’s article on HR 3962 for his explanation of the specific problems with the health bill.

Geyman doesn’t even address one of our main concerns in his critique of the Health Care for America Act: the inclusion in the House bill of a hard-line anti-choice provision, despite earlier promises that this reform would be neutral on the longstanding abortion debate. Many are angry at Nancy Pelosi, who promised to allow a vote on the Kucinich Amendment that would have allowed each state to opt in to a single payer plan if they so chose, then at the last moment refused to allow that vote on the floor of the House. Meanwhile, she allowed the anti-abortion amendment to come to the floor where it passed with overwhelming support of the Republicans who then voted against the whole bill.

Not all of us at Tikkun or in the Network of Spiritual Progressives agree with Dr. Geyman’s conclusion, even while we think that this article is a rather important statement. Some believe that the reforms in the bill passed are better than nothing, and that later reforms of the reform might fix the errors in this version. Others agree with Geyman that, once instituted, this approach to “reform” will be hard to change for decades to come, the abortion provision outrageous, and the further institutionalization of the insurance companies and health care profiteers and pharmaceuticals elements that make the whole thing worse than nothing. (On our website, on this blog, and in Tikkun magazine, we print many articles with positions that do not necessarily reflect our own views — it’s part of our notion of how one gets to the deepest truths, by allowing vigorous debate. Our views are presented only in our editorials. But even if you don’t agree with the positions in articles we print, post on our website or blog, or send out, we think that what we present our ideas with which we believe we ought to be grappling).


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