In Which I Substitute an Email Exchange With Melissa for an Actual Post

A little while ago, I sent this missive to Melissa:

From: [SKM]
Subject: Blah blah blah blab Biden
Date: March 23, 2010 11:38:32 AM EDT
To: [Melissa McEwan]

Yeargh--Joe Biden is on the Teevee yarning on about how Obama "delivered on a promise". Yeah, a promise to corporations not to dent the insurance industry's income too much! Blergh.
__________

Subject: RE: Blah blah blah blab Biden
Date: March 23, 2010 12:36:58 PM EDT

LOLOLOL! You should post that.

So I did.

Seriously, though: while I am sick of seeing politicians break their arms patting themselves on the back while they use my bodily autonomy (and thus my full citizenship) as a bargaining chip, I am glad for the positive changes that the law will supposedly bring, such as an end to pre-existing condition exclusions (for those 19 and under) and rescissions this year. But I feel that the work has barely begun.

Jodi Jacobson has a post at RH Reality Check this morning entitled The Health Care Bill and Women's Health: Wins, Losses, and Challenges that provides an excellent summary of the health care reform and some directions for improvement.

CHALLENGES:

In the coming months, and to truly fulfill his campaign promises, President Obama--along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid--must lead the nation and the Congress in making the following changes to the foundation of health reform put in place today.

At a minimum, the Administration and Congress should:

-Amend the health reform bill to establish a public option thereby increasing competition in the health insurance market. As most analysts note, the public option is popular and also would prevent insurance companies from increasing rates by exhorbitant amounts as recently happened in California.

-Eliminate the Nelson language in the health reform bill and revoke the Executive Order signed by the President.

-Eliminate gender-rating in all policies, starting in 2011.

-Eliminate pre-existing conditions for all people in 2011. It is not clear why we need to wait four years for insurance policies to eliminate pre-existing conditions. Between this moment and four years from now, untold numbers of people will have to pay exhorbitant premiums to get coverage in high-risk pools due to pre-existing conditions. It is nice to know these will be eliminated, but waiting four years defeats the purpose.

-Remove the 5-year cap on immigrants who are legal residents and allow undocumented workers to use their own funds to purchase health insurance through an exchange.

At the signing ceremony this morning, President Obama said that "we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations". Well, I don't plan to either.

UPDATE below the fold!

Melissa just sent me this with the note, Btw, have you seen this video of Biden "whispering" in Obama's ear, "This is a big fucking deal"...? LOL! Someone still doesn't understand "microphones."

Biden: Ladies and Gentleman, The President of the United States of America, Barack Obama!
Biden (to Obama): This is a big fucking deal!
Obama: Thank you, everybody!

*wild applause*