Sessions’ Forum Unproductive

Despite one audience member’s rant about the supposed connection between health care and the collapse of democracies, last Thursday’s town hall meeting with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions was a civil event.

Unfortunately, merely having a civil event based upon such an important topic as health care reform isn’t the rule nowadays, and so, it bears mention.

Civility not withstanding, this didn’t mean the talk of reform had any tangible outcome. It didn’t mean Sessions’ comments addressed any meaningful or populist concern related to the issue of the day: health care reform.

Indeed, the talk of health care reform turned out to be more of a diatribe of the proposed spending policies of the Obama administration.

A rather awkward and stunning accusation given the last eight years of unfettered, unregulated and unprecedented spending of which Sessions was of the majority party.

It began with talk of the massive federal bailout of Wall Street, initially implemented under Bush. Sessions – along with Sen. Richard Shelby – voted against the TARP program, and Sessions used this issue as fodder for why he opposes the current health care reform bill. According to the senator, there is a parallel between these two policies, and its main impetus is based on “panic” rather than informed and productive debate.

Thus, as Sessions suggested, such a comprehensive analysis of health care requires much more time.

Still, as the senator responded to a question about the lack of bi-partisanship in Washington on this issue, Sessions honestly admitted he has no plan of passing any health care reform bill into law.

So, no matter what kind of reconciliations and negotiations remain to be hammered out, the senator seemingly sees no need for any reform.

In a telling exchange, Sessions suggested that the parents of uninsured children apply for the SCHIP. This is ironic because the senator voted against this provision.

In a broader perspective, this has come to represent the views of a majority of Republicans on this issue.

In the fundamental debate over whether the health and well-being of our nation’s citizens is a right or a privilege, the latter has come to define the conservative message on this issue.

There is the idea that the uninsured are wholly responsible for lack of coverage and their ineptitude and lack of responsibility is a burden on the actively insured.

Add to this a chorus of people who are perfectly happy with their health insurance – seemingly a clear majority at the town hall – and it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that there’s no need to disrupt the status quo.

However if one examines the situation outside of those who are currently happy with it, the whole notion of the “privileged” class is becoming an increasingly narrow category.

Even when one excludes the number of uninsured Americans – which by conservative estimates is more than the entire population of Canada – the desire and the need for change is overwhelming.

Not surprisingly, the senator failed to address the millions of hard-working, responsible citizens who have been dropped from their health care coverage because they got sick.

The senator didn’t address the millions of Americans that have been driven into bankruptcy or have gone into credit card debt in an attempt to pay for sky-rocketing insurance premiums and co-payments.

The senator neglected to point out that we currently spend more on health care than any other country in the world, and despite all of this, we rank 35th out of 37 industrialized countries on health care according to the World Health Organization.

As the richest country in the world we rank 33rd from the top in preventing infant mortality.

Also disingenuous during the town hall were repeated claims of the senator that presumed the American public is firmly against health care reform.

Contrary to repeated assertions that health care reform is being rammed down Congress too quickly, this is an issue with sustained and long-term support.

Health care reform isn’t by any measure a new policy. It’s had a consistent popular appeal among respondents in polling data dating back at least 20 years.

Most recently, according to a CNN poll conducted between August 28 and 31, 91 percent of respondents believed the country’s health care system needs a “great deal of reform … or some reform.”

Given the skepticism some have over whether or not the Obama plan is the vehicle for such reform there’s still a majority of respondents on board for change.

A fundamental fact disputing the senator’s repeated assertions that opposition to the Obama plan and the “public option” is overwhelming.

Disregarding who brings about the reform, the point is that a majority of citizens are interested in at least some kind of reform, and it’s unfortunate there was no plan offered by the senator to address this concern.

Put simply – despite the civility, Sessions’ forum seemed to be meant only to calm the fears of those who don’t have a problem with the current system, and ensure these people that the status-quo will be maintained.

This is easy to do if you find yourself not needing change. Not so much for the mass majority of citizens who have consistently and repeatedly recognized the dire need for health care reform.