The Healthcare Meetings: Let the cameras in. Let the reporters in. Let the American people in.

[Better Believe It]

It’s Our Lives, It’s Our Money: Do Health Reform In the Sunshine
by Donna Smith
Donna Smith is a community organizer for the California Nurses Association and National Co-Chair for the Progressive Democrats of America Healthcare Not Warfare campaign.
January 5, 2010

If there is nothing to protect that relates to national security, every bit of the health reform legislation debate and negotiation should be done in public. Period.

We read today that C-SPAN is arguing that the negotiations between the House and the Senate on their healthcare bills need to be done while their cameras are rolling. I agree.

The public's business needs to be done in public. And this healthcare reform legislation is not only spending our money, it is determining the course of our lives in a very personal and profound way. We may live or die, suffer financial trauma or be fined, have access to doctors or be denied that access, all based on what Congress seeks to finish quickly behind closed doors. This is not an appropriate way to complete this process.

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant," reads a well-known quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, referring to the benefits of openness and transparency in public policy.

If this healthcare reform legislation has been done in the best interests of the public, no Congressional member ought to fear full and accurate vetting of every inch of the process and detail of the bill in full view of the public and the press.

Now, if we just had an engaged and independent-of-corporate-control press demanding to know all not only on our behalf but on behalf of the nation. Handing over the health of our nation to the for-profit insurance industry is a very large step to take on faith that it will work out well in the end.

Do you hear the insurance industry really fighting any of this? Is the silence deafening to anyone else but me? Where is Karen Ignagni, the industry's top spokesperson? Perhaps she's waiting in the wings for the invitation to the Rose Garden bill signing ceremony and then into the front row for the State of the Union address. Safe bet she's been weighing in all along the way. We're just not privy to that, and we should be.

And we - the American people -- cannot even get a camera into the Congressional meetings in which our personal fate is being decided and our funds being committed for healthcare? If they have nothing to hide from us, let it all hang out. Let us see it and let us understand all the forces that made this health reform effort what it has been and what it will be. Let the cameras in. Let the reporters in. Let the American people in.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/05-11

----------------------------------

C-Span letter in PDF format at this link:

http://www.c-span.org/pdf/C-SPAN%20Health%20Care%20Letter.pdf

[nightrain]

1. knr. Yep! And it probably won't happen, sadly... Corporate Dems won't let their

affiliations with corporations be that visible.

Thanks for the links!

[Better Believe It]

2. You'll have 72 hours to read the final deal cooked up behind closed doors!

The meetings will likely continue behind closed doors, and there is no word on how the public will know what agreements have been reached. House leaders have said a compromise bill would be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before any vote is taken.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Washington-Watch/Reform/17812

So we and members of Congress will have a full 72 hours to study and read over 2,000 pages of the healthcare agreement. Thanks for nothing. One would have to carefully read at least 30 pages an hour. Now if one insists on using the bathroom, eating, sleeping and working you'll have at most 36 hours to carefully read the agreement .... that's a page a minute.

Oh .... you might want to hire an attorney to interpret all of the legal mumbo jumbo in the agreement.

Everyone up for that?

[emilyg]

3. kick