Common Sense: Abomodable care

President Obama has apologized for his “big mistake” in declaring that no one would lose their insurance under the Federal Affordable Health Care Act better known as Obamacare. Isn’t that nice.

The federal government has also tried to downplay the whole episode by saying only around five percent of Americans run a high risk of being dropped. Considering that the heath care law was primarily enacted to cover the five percent or so of Americans who did not have healthcare, I find it quite ironic that in covering that five percent, it is potentially leaving five percent without policies, scrambling to find affordable coverage.

And by the way the “only five percent” of Americans who are at high risk of being dropped translates into more than 15 million people.

Great effort was made to assure all Americans that the transition to what is essentially a nationalized form of healthcare would be seamless for most Americans, resulting in a higher standard of care on average for most Americans.

This has not even remotely happened. And we have not even gotten into the issues concerning the actual quality of care as well as the delivery and denial of services and the ability for the medical community to work under the rules.

Considering how the sign-up has gone, I think we should be worried.

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Republican Party State Chairperson Ed Cox has been wrongly criticized for supporting the need for New York State to make a decision on fracking during a speech he gave recently before the natural gas industry in Buffalo. Cox is being criticized because he is apparently an investor in a natural gas industry company, thus in the minds of some creating a conflict.

Ed Cox is a party chairperson, not a government official. He has no role in state policy. He has a pro-gas fracking view that happens to be shared by many members of his political party as well as mine – the Conservative Party.

This is America, the land of opportunity, the last time I checked. So what’s the problem? Where is the conflict? He is a private citizen who chairs a non-governmental entity that has a position on a public policy issue that could create many thousands of jobs and a good deal of money for literally hundreds of thousands of ordinary New Yorkers.

He gave a speech in support of that view which was also critical of Governor Cuomo, who does not seem to be able to show any degree of leadership in this area. Not surprisingly, the governor’s political operation then went after Cox. In my view, Cox should be praised, not criticized.

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Speaking of Governor Cuomo, he did veto the “lock box” mass transit legislation sponsored by State Senator Marty Golden (whom I serve as chief of staff) and Assemblymember Jim Brennan that I discussed in last week’s column.

You may recall it required that revenue raised through mass transit be spent on mass transit. The governor essentially argued that the legislation was not necessary, stating, “I have never declared a fiscal emergency and directed such transfers. The legislature has not articulated a sound basis to change the current law.”

Many hundreds of millions of dollars have been diverted in the past few years. This would prevent that from continuing. That should be good enough. I would expect a new bill to be put forward.