It is clear with the latest healthcare proposal, the Senate’s Graham-Cassidy bill, that the GOP has no interest in genuine healthcare reform that would provide higher quality or less expensive health services to Americans. The proposal unremorsefully would decimate the quality of healthcare for millions of Americans, raise premiums, and make access to health insurance impossible for at least twenty million citizens. The Graham-Cassidy bill, which Senators hope to push through by the slimmest of votes, serves the purpose only of trying to eliminate Obama-era policies without any regard for the well-being of Americans. It is a heart-breaking effort most precisely because there is a chance that it could pass.
Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the beginning of a ten-day period of intense introspection that culminates with the holy day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. During this period, many Jews believe that the Book of Life is open. We pray to be inscribed for a good life and to be shown how we can live better. On Yom Kippur, when the Book of Life is sealed, we hope that our prayers and efforts to make important improvements in the way we live, will grant us mercy and strength to implement those changes through the year. It is not lost on me that the deadline for the Graham-Cassidy bill’s passage or defeat is also the day when our collective fate is sealed.
Bernie Sanders and his cohort have put out the call, again, to fill the phone lines with calls to Senators, demanding that they vote against this bill. No leading medical group supports the legislation. The medical groups I belong to are urging me once more to be sure that that my Senator votes against this legislation. Hasn’t the fact that similar proposals have failed twice already sent that message? It should have.
The Senate knows that Americans do not want this bill. I would rather, during this spiritually important period, devote myself to the charity work that calls so loudly – to evacuating people and livestock from the wildfires plaguing us here in the West; to collecting gift cards to support those devastated by hurricanes; to the food and coat drive that my synagogue runs to help our community as winter rolls in. I am frustrated. If our Senators can’t see that this is a deadly proposal, we need not waste our time showing them the fallacy of their ways. We need new Senators.
It is clear that the President’s base doesn’t like Obama. I completely understand that repeal of the Affordable Care Act was a rallying call for that base. We certainly can do better than the ACA, but until we can improve it, we cannot return to the days of pre-existing condition exclusions, annual or lifetime caps on coverage, enormous premium hikes, and lack of access to care for millions.
As I go to the synagogue to pray for a good year, I pray not only for myself, but for those who have no one to speak for them. I pray for the mentally ill and the addicts, the people I work with, who aren’t registered to vote and don’t have the ear of a Senator. The Torah commands that we choose life. It is for life, and for healthcare, that I pray. Senators, kill this bill before this legislation kills us.
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