Posts Tagged Senate HELP Committee

My mother lives on Martha’s Vineyard.

My wife and I always chuckle to hear her and others islanders refer to Massachusetts as “America”, as if the island has seceded from the Commonwealth and, incidentally, the United States. As I contrast the “reform” plans in Washington with the reality of the Massachusetts Connector from which key parts of the Senate HELP and House Tri-Committee plans are derived, I wonder if all of the residents of the Commonwealth are wondering what “America” is considering.

As outlined in The New York Times article entitled Massachusetts Takes a Step Back From Health Care for All, the Commonwealth has decided that they cannot provide the coverage that they promised. As a result, 30,000 legal immigrants are set to lose their coverage. Coincidentally, The New York Times reports that the Congressional Budget Office estimates House Tri-Committee bill released yesterday will leave only 17,000,000 people uninsured in 2019, of which nearly half would be illegal immigrants. Similarly, both legislators in the House and in Massachusetts believe that a surcharge on the wealthy, aka a tax increase, is the only way to make the math work.

It was not so long ago, even in 2008, when the federal government was in the habit of actually following the laws passed by Congress, such as the United States Bankruptcy Code. In that bygone era, some might have wondered whether the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence might weigh against the “reform” plans fashioned in the House in which a very small minority was hectored into financing benefits for the majority. Others might have pondered whether a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence-like program might constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy, which many hold dear when applied to Roe v. Wade. In today’s world, however, federal judges will not uphold the United States Code in the GM bankruptcy, so I am skeptical that they will do so in healthcare reform.

What to do in response? As any good lawyer knows, when the law favors your side, argue the law; when the facts favor your side, argue the facts. The facts are that this great country was established by immigrants. It is my view that the enduring legacy of America has resulted from and depends upon the diversity and vibrancy that immigrants bring, whether physicians or scientists or engineers or farmers or laborers or artists. To think that the immigrant, and especially the legal immigrant, will bear the brunt of failed healthcare reform is appalling. To think that the Democratic Party will deliver the blow is, I suppose, their version of Nixon going to China.

True healthcare reform will not disadvantage the wealthy, and it will not break the back of the immigrant, who not so long ago were you and me. Shame on all of us if we allow that to happen.