Day 16

Another rainy day. K and associate Martha working on business taxes for last year all morning. I was going to walk down to the Supreme Court (five blocks) to see at least a few minutes of the oral arguments for what is shaping up to be a historical court case and civil liberties show down but missed the end of the session by minutes. The court has taken the unprecedented action of holding a special session prior to their regularly scheduled season in order to re-hear a case brought by right wing litigation group Citizens United they have already heard once but failed to rule on - essentially at issue the question of whether any financial restrictions can be placed on corporations with regard to campaign contributions. The Roberts Court has been very up front in its desire to remove all limitations on corporate contributions to political campaigns. If they succeed in this they will have done in the concept of 'one man, one vote' and substituted 'one dollar, one vote.' Also, perhaps most important, they will have undermined the ability of congress to impose such limits by declaring them unconstitutional. This is really not good.

This concern colors my approach to listening to Obama's speech about health care 'reform.' I am so sick of hearing the talking heads speak of the need for insurance coverage when the issue is one of health care. Being 'covered' by an insurance policy in no way insures that one will actually be provided with health service when needed - or reimbursed for out of pocket funds paid. That is more of a problem than the number of persons with no insurance. The crisis is that 'insurance' doesn't really insure anything today. Private insurance provides no clear service. It really makes its profit from refusing to pay claims and the policy holder has little recourse when left in the cold. The need for some standard 'public option' is clear to all those who have been stiffed by United Healtcare, Blue Cross / Blue Shield, Golden Rule, Well Point, or any of the hundreds of other rip-off companies that exist for the purpose of extracting money from suffering and fear. I worked for multiple insurance companies for years in Indianapolis and it was quite clear that the gap between what was promised and what was provided was deliberately wide and obscured. That government has been complicit in this ongoing rip-off is also clear and something that, going forward, we all need to keep in the forefront of our concern. As long as government takes the sides of the private insurers, the citizens will be short changed and continue to pay for empty promises.