Who Owns Health Care?

I think I know. It is Michelle Robinson Obama. How do I know,well she kinda said so herself. Wait, wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Last Saturday, the President told a crowd in Minnesota that he owned health care. Fast forward to yesterday and the first lady said health care was  a women’s issue. According  to her, women make most of the health care decisions in a family; take the children to the doctor,etc.

She spoke at the White House to leaders of various women’s groups so I guess the emphasis perhaps was on health care from a women’s perspective. She said some interesting things though. One was this quote:”Health care reform is part of that movement.Health insurance reform is the next step. Let us parse those statements a bit. She spoke of health care reform in one sentence, health insurance reform in the next. Which are we reforming, cannot be both at the same time, can it? The President speaks of health care reform. Perhaps he and the first lady need to co-ordinate a little better. And what movement is  that of which she speaks, the women’s movement or health care reform? Again, a bit of a conundrum.

Perhaps this next intrigued and  maybe even irritated me at the same time. She spoke of a time  a number of years  ago when one of their daughters was ill and there was some uncertainty about the illness. There was some concern about even meningitis. Certainly,parents , whomever they are concerned and  even frightened. According to her,their first thought was thank goodness they had health insurance. I’m sorry. My only response to that is no,no, and no again. As parents of small children we faced our share of  health crises. At no time was our first concern whether or not we had health insurance, Our chief concern was the health and well being of our son or daughter. Now, we were thankful for having insurance, but that was not the overriding concern.The doctors, nurses, medical facilities that were available to provide the care that was needed; that was what mattered. Dollars and cents came later.( And, may I add, we have had times without health insurance.)

So, those comments plus the emotion which surfaced during her speech(Nancy Pelosi anyone) seem, I just don’t know, disingenuous. All in all, what she said may not have been the main reason she spoke. Huh, you say. After all, she has a very lofty approval rating, much higher than the President’s rating. So, even though he owns the issue, the calculation seems to be that she can provide a needed boost.