To understand what I mean by this, and why I’m so angry about it, you need to understand the concept of cost-sharing. Cost-sharing is a fancy way of describing the co-pays, coinsurance and deductibles that policy holders are liable for when they seek medical care. Different types of plans have different types of cost-sharing.

Both versions of the legislation contain language exempting certain services from cost-sharing. Among them:

• maternity care
• newborn care
• pediatric vision and dental care

Pap smears and mammograms are also provided for in the legislation.

If the bills passed today and went through reconciliation with this language intact, insurers would be required to provide those services at no additional cost to the policy-holder. In other words, if you get pregnant and have a baby under this proposed legislation, your insurer could not charge you a dime beyond your basic premium.

But that’s great, right? What a step forward for women!!

Yeah…not so much. Because markedly absent from the list of protected services are:

• birth control counseling
• birth control procedures (such as IUD insertion, tubal ligation, etc.)
• pelvic exams
• STD screenings.

Congress is essentially saying that if you’re procreating, we’ll take care of you. If you’re having sex for any other reason, you’re shit out of luck unless you have the money to pay for reproductive health services out of pocket. It’s a legislative version of the old Madonna/whore complex. Tut, tut, says Congress. Don’t you know that sex is for making babies, you unrepentant whores? If you’d just keep your legs shut, you wouldn’t need those services anyway.

Congress can kiss my ass, because that isn’t reform. It’s a sick joke that’s going to continue to doom hundreds of thousands of women to sub-standard health care. Women who are going to die from cancer, become infertile from undiagnosed STDs, or *god forbid* women who are going to add to the abortion rate because they didn’t have access to affordable reproductive health care.

The article rightly points out that Congress can’t cater to every special interest group in crafting this legislation and I get that. However, 50% of the population is not a special interest group. We deserve to be heard over the braying cacophony of the hard-right wingers.

More importantly, we deserve to be treated with respect by the growing group of so-called Democrats in Congress who refuse to go to bat for anything involving the word “reproductive” because “women’s bodies have become political lightning rods, even when abortion is not the issue.” That kind of chicken-shit defection from traditional Democratic values makes me even more angry than the Republican asshattery, because at least that, I’ve come to expect.

The Senate is now considering their version of the legislation and eventually will have to reconcile their bill with the House. Contacting your representative won’t do much good at this point, so I suggest you contact your Senator about this. You can be sure I have.

It’s all too easy, especially for centrists with health insurance (who comprise the majority of Americans), to dismiss issues like this one as “political” and blithely disengage. But when people do that, it opens the door for the fringe to dominate the discussion. Think about that. Do you really want the far-right to determine the future of healthcare simply because they can shout louder? Or the far left, who seem hell-bent on getting their public option to the point where they would rather scuttle any reform that doesn’t include it, no matter how meaningful?

Life is busy. I get that. I’m sure most people would far rather relax with a book or TV program than think about this hydra-headed issue. It certainly makes my brain hurt. But to not think about it and discuss it, to dismiss it as “politics,” is to give over control of the process to people who don’t have the best interests of the majority at heart. There have been many tragic mistakes made over the course of history because the majority remained silent. Don’t let this become one of them.

This weekend, if you haven’t already done so, I’m asking you to find an hour to do a little research, think about what your concerns are, then share them with your Congressional Representative here and your Senator here.

But what I love most about this speech is the following bit of unassuming prose: “You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.”

Knowledge. Problem-solving skills. Insights. Critical thinking skills. Creativity. Ingenuity. All things that are critically important in today’s world and all in woefully short supply in this country. In fact, the debate over the speech itself demonstrates just how little some Americans engage in critical thinking in particular.

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of watching President Nixon resign his office. I was six years old, roughly the age my daughter is now. We were at the state fair in New Jersey, where we lived at the time. I remember being told to be quiet because the President was making an important speech. But my parents didn’t just hush me and protect me. They explained to me, in words a child could understand, what was happening and why they felt the resignation was significant.

All my young life, my father engaged me on the issues. He loved (and still does) to debate with me, challenging my views and making me think more deeply about my positions. Nothing drew more scorn from him than saying I’d heard it somewhere and therefore believed it. Simply put, he taught me to think for myself.

That, more than anything else, is what bothers me the most about the controversy regarding the President’s address. It’s not that people have different political views that I do. It’s not even that some parents would rather their child be excused from viewing the speech. That’s their right. It’s that an entire segment of the population is blindly, unquestioningly following a few noisy, lazy, ignorant people to whom critical thinking, logic and introspection are anathema.

That kind of blind obedience to anyone, be it God, Jesus or a radio talk show host, scares the wits out of me. Life is questioning. Life is seeking. Life is learning. Without those things, it’s just a long, boring slog to the end of the line. Who would choose to live like that?

Kristof writes eloquently about how our current system breaks up families and, despite the absence of so-called “death panels” actually hastens or contributes to the deaths of as many as 18,000 people every year. To illustrate this, he writes about a loving couple who were forced to divorce in order to protect the wife’s retirement savings so that her ill husband could qualify for Medicaid. Their only other option would have been to spend down all their assets, leaving the wife penniless and caring for a husband with dementia.

That got me to thinking. Aren’t those sign-wielding, gun-toting, anti-government crackpots that have been braying and bullying their way through healthcare town halls the same folks pushing for an amendment to the Constitution defending marriage? Apparently, it’s more important to these people that gays be prevented from exercising a basic human right than it is to protect heterosexual couples from having to split up over medical bills. Like their stance on abortion, it’s a case of “do what we say is right, but once you do, you’re on your own.”

Once again, the far Right proves that the only thing it stands for is hypocrisy. Defense of marriage, my ass.

I would like to issue a public challenge to Ms. Davis to live on the equivalent of a food stamp budget for a month. Get back to me afterwards, Ms. Davis, and let me know if your attitudes have changed. If you would like to contact Ms. Davis you can do so at:

Cynthia.Davis@house.mo.gov
Phone: 573-751-9768
Post Office Mail: 201 W. Capitol Ave., Room 112, Jefferson City, MO 65101

She’s apparently decided that attacking the highly successful summer nutrition program is a good idea. The program provides lunch for children during the summer who would normally receive free or reduced-price lunches during the school year.

She actually asks the question, “Is school the only place a child can get a nutritious meal?” Apparently, Ms. Davis didn’t bother to check her statistics. If she had, she’d have found that 12.4 million children live with the daily risk of going hungry(2). So yes, Ms. Davis. Sometimes, it is.

The most laughable part of the press release is when Ms. Davis recommends teenagers address the problem of going hungry by getting a job at McDonalds where “they will feed you for free.” Um…yeah. Because with a youth unemployment rate of 14% (3) (in 2008…it’s probably even higher now) that is just going to be so easy. Not to mention she harps all through the newsletter on nutrition. McDonald’s, Ms. Davis? Seriously?

I am embarassed to live in a state where the residents elect such a rampantly uninformed, uncaring individual.

(1) St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association
(2) Share Our Strength, Facts on Childhood Hunger
(3) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Unemployment Among Youth, 2008