So, we've finally passed a Health Care Reform Bill that will revolutionize the industry!  Finally, all people will be able to afford healt care.  We will no longer be the only industrialized nation to be without a not-for-profit single-payer health care plan.  Not exactly.

The House Bill H.R. 3962, which passed last week, has done little to nothing to ease the burden of healh care costs nor to extend this basic human right of care to those who do not or cannot afford it.

This bill will do the same amount of good that .  In short, (get ready for a shock), this government's leaders - both Republicans and Democrats - have failed the American people.

This bill which claims to be a reformation, has only caused tens of millions of uninsured people to become unwilling victims/customers of the same insurance companies that are currently bankrupting the average citizen.  This bill is no different than the Credit Card Company Reform Bill that Congress passed last year: creating lengthy documents and piggybacking others' agendas to create a bill that does nothing to solve the problem.

To pass a bill without a single-payer, not-for-profit standard (or, Medicare for all), is to literally do nothing to correct the Health Care system in this country with runs contrary to the public's interests. 
 
On his website, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, had this to say about the new bill:

"We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care."
 
This is the bill and reform the current administration backs.  It is indeed sad to see that President Obama, like many politicians, is just a shadow of his former self: Presidential Nominee Obama.  Where is the man who promised change?  Where is the man who promised us he would do away with lobbyists (part of the health care problem) and other corrupt government practices?  Where is the man who promised to give us a country we could be proud of?

Kucinich continues, "By incurring only a new requirement to cover pre-existing conditions, a weakened public option, and a few other important but limited concessions, the health insurance companies are getting quite a deal. The Center for American Progress’ blog, Think Progress, states “since the President signaled that he is backing away from the public option, health insurance stocks have been on the rise.

“...instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care. In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies – a bailout under a blue cross."

Kucinich is right on the mark when he calls this new bill nothing more than a "bailout" for insurance companies.  Hasn't the government seen that the bailouts of businesses don't help the economy?  Do they care?

I leave you with another comment from Rep. Dennis Kucinich:

"Recent rises in unemployment indicate a widening separation between the finance economy and the real economy. The finance economy considers the health of Wall Street, rising corporate profits, and banks’ hoarding of cash, much of it from taxpayers, as sign of an economic recovery. However in the real economy — in which most Americans live — the recession is not over. Rising unemployment, business failures, bankruptcies and foreclosures are still hammering Main Street."

We as followers of Jesus are called to care for all people - including the most vulnerable in our society.  How can we, in good conscience, stand there, smiling and nodding when government once again hands "the least of these" a shit sandwich, telling them it's "the best meal we've ever come up with"?  I'm not telling you to vote - I could never in good conscience tell you to do that.  I am telling you to write, call, fax, stand at the steps of your Senator and Representative's home and demand something better, not just more of the same.  We as Jesus-followers are pretty good at fishing the bodies out of the water; it's time we head upstream and find out what jackass is tossing them in.