Today, we moved a little bit closer to fixing health care.
Nothing about it was easy, but Congress has passed a budget that includes a historic commitment to health care reform. It follows the president's directive to establish a health reform reserve fund to cover the cost of health care without raising the deficit. Consider this a promise to the American people that real change is coming this year.
But you and I both know that promises can be broken; nothing is a done deal in Washington until it has the president's signature on it. We had to work hard to get this budget passed and we're going to have to work even harder to pass legislation that solves the health care crisis once and for all.
The good news: our movement is gaining momentum. Nothing like this has ever been done before, which means we started from a standstill. But, we kept growing larger and stronger in our call to fix health care - and Congress has taken note. Last week, when you flooded Capitol Hill with phone calls, members of Congress started making a few calls of their own. Officials who had previously been on the fence about President Obama's budget called to let us know they definitely supported it - and could we please stop calling?
A few senators - including Mary Landrieu (LA) and Mark Pryor (AR) - were identified as key votes. In those states, our activists made hundreds of extra calls into their offices. This morning, every single one of them voted to support the budget.
Then there's the (not really) bad news: you've set the bar very high. On the same day the president's budget proposal left the White House, our movement sprang into action. Since then, you've put 7,000 calls into Congress. You've written 4,409 online letters. And you've recruited 2,594 new people into our movement. Your work has turned a lot of heads, and now they're watching to see if we can keep it going.
Thanks to your efforts, we can now focus all our time and attention on one, single goal: passing a bill that fixes health care. I don't need to tell you, though, that our opponents will be just as focused on defeating it. That means that every moment we're not moving forward, we're falling behind.
Let's keep advancing; keep the call for quality, affordable health care growing stronger. Together, we will be the ones to solve this crisis that has plagued America for almost a century.
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It is noteworthy that "reform" is being slipped into a budget bill with little coverage and truncated debate. Maybe even a little dishonest. Because the real cost of "reform", where Americans will find themselves with a healthcare system that is continuously underfunded while constantly overburdened with patients and bureaucracy, is easily tenfold times more than what is being discussed and estimated, our country will be saddled with a burden they cannot recover from.
There is a need for reform. A tragic accident in the US destroys a family in 2 ways. The pain of either having lost a loved one or seeing their bodies nearly destroyed, and the ensuing financial disaster that will befall them. Even an accident prone kid can cost a family their future savings because of the high costs of care.
But where is the real disconnect? The real problems? It is not that medical treatment is not available for people who truly need it. It is not that some people DO NOT acquire insurance. that is their personal choice, even if not a wise one.
So this reform will not fix anything. Look at how the govt. is "fixing" this financial crises that they helped bring about. This is like asking the mechanic that can't put the lugnuts on correctly to go ahead and rebuild the engine and transmission. Do you think that car will ever run again?
Pay attention to the troubles that are prevalent in the British and Canadian health care systems. They are that way for a reason.