A Reminder: When It Comes to Health Care Reform, Democrats Did Build That!

By Dale Bowling

Democrats believe fundamentally in the role of government to improve the lives of Americans.
The Private Sector does a lot of things really well, but not everything and that's where government
comes in.

In the 1930s Democrats created Social Security to protect our America's seniors from falling into
poverty.

In the 1960s Democrats developed Medicare so that our Nation's seniors could have
affordable health care.

You see, Democrats figured the Private Sector had had thousands of years to solve these problems and there was no use waiting any longer.

Most recently, Democrats created the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to make sure that all Americans would have access to health care.

It's worth noting perhaps that Republicans had the White House for 8 years and Congress for 12 years
and the words "health care reform" were not on their radar. Their priorities were tax cuts for the
wealthy, deregulating Wall Street and invading countries without WMDs, but not helping Americans get the health care they need.

Once Democrats had the White House and the votes to make real health care reform in America that's
what they did and these are some of its provisions.

• If you have a pre-existing condition, no insurance company can ever turn you down. Since we are all doctor's visit or an intersection away from having a pre-existing condition, this is good news for everyone. Republicans want to kill that, of course.  
• Children can stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26. Private Sector- you didn't build that!
• Lifetime coverage caps have been removed, so if you have an ongoing illness you need never worry about reaching the limits of your coverage. Republicans say this is too expensive.  
• Insurance companies can't discriminate against women by making them pay more for their reproductive health care. I'm sure you can guess what Republicans say about this.  
• The Affordable Care Act strengthens Medicare because it eliminates waste and overpayment to insurance companies and hospitals, lengthening Medicare's solvency. Normally Republicans like cutting government waste, but surprisingly not so much this time.
• Oh- and by the end of the first ten years the Affordable Care Act will actually have reduced the deficit. Republicans have more experience running up huge deficits than reducing them, so this doesn't impress them much either.

The point of all this is that when the Private Sector fails to do what's best for people, the Democrats
have America's back. And it's a good thing someone does.