One year after President Obama began this nationwide debate on health care, we are finally getting close to final vote on this bill (which has already passed both chambers of Congress and only needs to be merged into one final bill...no easy task, of course):

"I believe the United States Congress owes the American people a final vote on health care reform," Mr. Obama said during a 20-minute speech in the East Room of the White House. He said there was no point in starting over, as Republicans are demanding, and called on nervous Democrats to stick with him, declaring there was no reason "for those of us who were sent here to lead to just walk away."

"Reform has already passed the House with a majority. It has already passed the Senate with a super-majority of 60 votes," Mr. Obama said. "And now it deserves the same kind of up or down vote that was cast on welfare reform, that was cast on the Children's Health Insurance Program, that was used for Cobra health coverage for the unemployed and, by the way, for both Bush tax cuts -- all of which had to pass Congress with nothing more than a simple majority."

Let's see if he can rustle up the necessary support within his own party to get this (flawed) health-care bill over the finish line.

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Tags: health care reform, President Obama, reconciliation

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The Great Recession continues, with the number of those unemployed over six months soaring to a record. This powerful story ran in this past Sunday's NY Times:

6.3 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or longer, the largest number since the government began keeping track in 1948. That is more than double the toll in the next-worst period, in the early 1980s.

The article continues in stark detail, portraying what so many Americans are going through today. First there's Ms. Eisen:

Here in Southern California, Jean Eisen has been without work since she lost her job selling beauty salon equipment more than two years ago. In the several months she has endured with neither a paycheck nor an unemployment check, she has relied on local food banks for her groceries.

She has learned to live without the prescription medications she is supposed to take for high blood pressure and cholesterol. She has become effusively religious -- an unexpected turn for this onetime standup comic with X-rated material -- finding in Christianity her only form of health insurance.

Twice, Ms. Eisen exhausted her unemployment benefits before her check was restored by a federal extension. Last week, her check ran out again. She and her husband now settle their bills with only his $1,595 monthly disability check. The rent on their apartment is $1,380.

"We're looking at the very real possibility of being homeless," she said.

And then there is Ms.Booth:

Until she was laid off two years ago, Janine Booth, 41, brought home roughly $10,000 a month in commissions from her job selling electronics to retailers. A single mother of three, she has been living lately on $2,000 a month in child support and about $450 a week in unemployment insurance -- a stream of checks that ran out last week.

For Ms. Booth, work has been a constant since her teenage years, when she cleaned houses under pressure from her mother to earn pocket money. Today, Ms. Booth pays her $1,500 monthly mortgage with help from her mother, who is herself living off savings after being laid off.

"I don't want to take money from her," Ms. Booth said. "I just want to find a job."

Any job will do:

"I don't want to clean my neighbors' houses," she said. "I know I'm going to come out of this. There's no way I'm going to be homeless and poverty-stricken. But I am scared. I have a lot of sleepless nights."

For the Eisens, poverty is already here. In the two years Ms. Eisen has been without work, they have exhausted their savings of about $24,000. Their credit card balances have grown to $15,000.

"I don't know how we're still indoors," she said.

Her 1994 Dodge Caravan broke down in January, leaving her to ask for rides to an employment center.

She does not have the money to move to a cheaper apartment.

"You have to have money for first and last month's rent, and to open utility accounts," she said.

What she has is personality and presence -- two traits that used to seem enough. She narrates her life in a stream of self-deprecating wisecracks, her punch lines tinged with desperation.

"See that," she said, spotting a man dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Standing on a sidewalk, he waved at passing cars with a sign advertising a tax preparation business. "That will be me next week. Do you think this guy ever thought he'd be doing this?"

And yet, she would gladly do this. She would do nearly anything.

"There are no bad jobs now," she says. "Any job is a good job."

Read on to get an idea of what ordinary Americans are going through today. Indeed, it's a sobering picture that we must keep in mind when thinking about our neighbors and how we can help.

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Tags: laid off workers, longterm unemployment, The Great Recession, unemployed

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This story is getting a ton of play the past few days as a game changer in the Health Care debate in Congress:

Anthem Blue Cross has agreed to a Feb. 8 request by California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to delay its individual health insurance rate increase until May 1 to allow an independent actuary to review their rates, the California Department of Insurance has reported.

Now you know that their strategy is just to delay until we, the citizens, are looking the other way when they just jack up their fees again. And how much are they trying to raise their fees?

In November 2009, the insurer submitted to the California Department of Insurance a proposed rate increase of as much as 39 percent for individual health insurance. Anthem wanted to implement the increases on March 1 and blamed the weak economy and rising health care costs for its rate hike. However, the Commissioner asked the company to delay its rate increase to allow for an actuary to review the rates, all while Anthem also faced public scrutiny for its decision to raise rates.

39%!!

And what's causing the need for this increase, considering that their parent company, Wellpoint, reported 2009 net income of $4.7 billion, or $9.88 per share, compared to $2.5 billion, or $4.76 per share, in 2008?

"Our decision to agree to postpone the rate adjustment does not change the underlying issue," Brian A. Sassi, president and CEO of the company's Consumer Business Unit, said. "All health plans are in the same situation in trying to deal with the steadily increasing medical costs in the delivery system, which are not sustainable. We are also experiencing a higher proportion of healthy individuals choosing not to enroll, leaving an insured pool that utilizes significantly more services."

Sure...and coming on the heals of this report detailing how the industry made $12 billion in profit in 2009, this increase is criminal.

And, like Kos says,

Sassi assures the 800,000 Californians covered by Anthem's health insurance have no need to worry because Anthem's new policy will be compliant with existing laws.

Reason 1,234,567 why existing laws need to change.

Amen on that!

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Tags: Anthem Blue Cross, Brian Sassi, California health care, health care reform, Wellpoint

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