As much if not more than in the rest of the country, Health Care Reform has been The Hot Topic in South Florida for
many months.
Grannies scared of socialized medicine and Grandpas worried about Medicare benefit cuts, sparring with Grannies scared of insurance company bullies and Grandpas mad as hell about Medicare going broke.
Single Payer stalwarts debating with Public Option advocates, and "Incrementalists" supporting Medicare For All - just not all at once.
For-profit insurers pouring dough into anti-reform lobbying & advertising efforts, and into state legislators' and candidates' war chests - while state's largest insurer, not-for-profit Blue Cross, shifts focus of its product line to Florida's nearly 4-million uninsured
Republican officials and candidates like Governor Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum, and the Right Wing's Love Child, Marco Rubio, all taking turns talking
trash, threatening revolt and repeal ...but offering absolutely no credible answers of their own.
And of course, the yapping Tea Party peeps peeing on the leg of anything that smelled remotely of health care reform.
Lost in the maelstrom, too often, have been all those people, Floridians from all walks of life, who are suffering so badly on so many levels, and crying out for Change.
A short new YouTube video captures the "human face" of The Great Health Reform Debate of 2009-2010, South Florida style, with simple, stark eloquence. This compilation of comments, drawn from multiple Florida events over the past year, offers some very pointed, personal insights from folks on the front lines of the struggle.
Got to hope, as we move past the big congressional showdown in the days to come, that the voices and stories of all those in need can be better heard and respected, and that a degree of civility and humanity can somehow be restored to what is our current crazy brand of American consensus building.
Grannies scared of socialized medicine and Grandpas worried about Medicare benefit cuts, sparring with Grannies scared of insurance company bullies and Grandpas mad as hell about Medicare going broke.
Single Payer stalwarts debating with Public Option advocates, and "Incrementalists" supporting Medicare For All - just not all at once.
For-profit insurers pouring dough into anti-reform lobbying & advertising efforts, and into state legislators' and candidates' war chests - while state's largest insurer, not-for-profit Blue Cross, shifts focus of its product line to Florida's nearly 4-million uninsured
And of course, the yapping Tea Party peeps peeing on the leg of anything that smelled remotely of health care reform.
Lost in the maelstrom, too often, have been all those people, Floridians from all walks of life, who are suffering so badly on so many levels, and crying out for Change.
A short new YouTube video captures the "human face" of The Great Health Reform Debate of 2009-2010, South Florida style, with simple, stark eloquence. This compilation of comments, drawn from multiple Florida events over the past year, offers some very pointed, personal insights from folks on the front lines of the struggle.
Got to hope, as we move past the big congressional showdown in the days to come, that the voices and stories of all those in need can be better heard and respected, and that a degree of civility and humanity can somehow be restored to what is our current crazy brand of American consensus building.
