The New York Times reports, today, that health insurance companies have already started to rattle their legalistic sabres against the newly signed reform law -- claiming that they are under no obligation to provide coverage for children with pre-existing conditions.
Most human beings with a pulse will be sickened by this news -- physically disgusted to learn that one of the most powerful, profitable industries in all of history is threatening to deny children coverage in order to maximize their short term profits. For most people this kind of behavior is beyond comprehension. It is the definition of evil in our time. It is sadism -- moral rot.
And yet, it persists, and as such, requires Democrats to be careful not to cede momentum to these kinds of sadistic arguments from the health insurance industry.
Given this reality, President Obama and Congressional Democrats have a moral obligation to spend every second of the current recess pushing back against this kind of sadism.
Simply put: the monumental achievement of passing a health insurance bill -- as imperfect as it may be -- will crumble down completely into a pile of meaningless rubble if the insurance companies barbaric disinterest in the welfare of children is allowed to stand -- either in actual legal arguments or in the court of public opinion.
From this point forward, the only way for President Obama and the Congress to defend the moral integrity of the health insurance reform law is by transforming the intent of insurance coverage for sick and dying children into a reality -- and to do so right away.
If so much as one story emerges where a sick or dying child is denied insurance in this new era of health insurance reform, then the American public will have good reason to question the whole process.
No waiting.
No vacation.
No clever rhetoric.
The Democratic leadership must hold the line in favor of children and against insurance company cruelty -- and they must do it now.