Health Care on the Ballot. Will you vote Yes, or No?

[By Kirsten]

Today is election day, November 2nd, 2010. 

In Santa Clara County, CA there are a variety of measures on the ballot, a Senate race, US House and State representatives, a gubernatorial race and contests for a number of other state positions.

For Democratic supporters, today is forcasted to be a difficult day, the depth of which will be measured by how deep the losses in Washington go.  It's not surprising, with the slow economic recovery continuing to impact countless people, in all aspects of life, from housing and education to jobs and healthcare. Many voters will not support the incumbent in hopes of bringing something better to bear.

On a national level, shifts in power in the house and/or Senate will mean less support for affordable healthcare through the 2009 Health Care Reform Act.  It will also mean less support for choice, through the continued erosion of public funding, support of abstinence only education, as well as non-secular legislation and shifts in supreme court confirmations.

Closer to home, in Santa Clara County, there is one ballot measure that is health care related and generally non-controversial.  That is the Santa Clara County Healthy Kids Parcel - Tax Ballot Measure A.  This measure is supported (at least according to the voters guides I recieved at home) by both the Democratic and Republican parties.  That's because there is a simple understanding that providing preventitive care to children is both cost effective, and the right thing to do.  Without it, expensive emergency room visits become the primary way these children are seen by medical professionals, often treated much later and in worse condition than they would have been had they had easier access to routine medical exams and prescriptions.  The expenses associated with these visits frequently go unpaid (without the collective bargaining power of an insurance giant, the costs are incredibly high), and as such they are passed on to the hospital and ultimately the taxpayers, anyway.

So, regardless of your political affiliation and views on the national topics, it is a safe bet to vote "Yes" on A in Santa Clara County.  If you can tolerate it, please vote for healthcare across the board.

Comments

[Lisa]

Sadly, many of these families use the ER much more frequently than they should. And I am not convinced after 17 years of working in the healthcare field that they come in in any worse condition. Many have "Medical" anyway and instead of using urgent care centers or even going to a dr.'s office during office hours they wait to go to the ER because they can get partial prescriptions filled at the ER, and of course an excuse to not be at work the next morning.
In theory it seems to be the right thing to do but, the abuse is rampant

[Vanessa]

The system needs to be naizlnaoited. repube propaganda aside, the simple fact is that you're better off under Great Britain's plan than american private insurance plans. Wonder when our elected leaders, including Obama, will drop the pretenses and careful language and say it like it is. The reason the repubes fight so hard against any kind of government sponsored insurance, such as SCHIP for a recent example, is they are scared to death to give us naizlnaoited healthcare because they're afraid we'll like it, and won't want to let it go. Kind of like Social Security.