April 1, 2010

Editorial

South Boston Online has included a press release from Congressman Stephen F. Lynch’s South Boston office in this issue.  In it, Congressman Lynch explains the reasons why he voted against the Health Care Reform Bill ten days ago.

We support Congressman Lynch in his vote.  He did the right thing.  Lynch actually supported the House version of the Health Care Reform Bill, HR 3962.  He decided to vote against the Senate version, HR 3590, only after that version stripped out many essential health care and health insurance reforms.

Predictably, unions criticized Lynch because of his vote, just as they did last fall, when he asked what we thought were two very sensible questions, “How much will health care reform cost?” and “Where will all that money come from?”  The union criticism puzzles us, because Lynch’s voting record on union issues is strong - measurably better than even the iconic Senator Kennedy’s was.  Perhaps it’s because a majority (51%) of union members are now public employees.  They don’t bargain with their bosses any more, they vote for them.

As you know, South Boston Online has been firmly opposed to the current proposals for health care reform.  This is because the proposals do little or nothing to control costs, which are eating up American middle class families in the private sector.  Why throw an added $1 Trillion (of your tax money, yet!) into something that’s already way over-priced?

We would like to add a few other comments to Congressman Lynch’s press release.

First, you’ll occasionally hear that “American medicine is the best in the world.”  Well, that simply isn’t true.  U.S. medical research is very good, but our “medical outcomes” – life span, infant mortality, and so on – rank only #20 worldwide.  In fact, medicine in the U.S. is worse than any other developed nation.  U.S. doctors don’t even wash their hands often enough.

Second, the Health Care Reform Bill that passed is well short of what President Obama promised us in his speech last August.  He said that his proposal would cost $800 Billion or “$900 Billion, maximum”.  The final version is $940 Billion and climbing rapidly.  More important, the President said, “No man, woman, or child in America will be without insurance.”  While South Boston Online recognizes that 32 million newly-insured people is a large number, that still leaves 16 million of us uninsured.  The President’s “promises” turned out to be only halfway measures – not good enough.

And don’t look to the Massachusetts health care program for guidance.  It was never effectively funded, and as a result, it is the single biggest cause of the Commonwealth’s 2011 budgetary shortfalls.

We support Congressman Lynch in his vote, and South Boston Online hopes that he can use his elected office to fix the Health Care Reform Bill.

We'd like to hear from you. Please email us at Barbara@SouthBostonOnline.com