Oklahomans With No Voice

Perhaps the most symbolic fact about why it’s so difficult to pass rational health care reform in this country involves U.S. Rep. Dan Boren’s no vote on the U.S. House bill Saturday night.

The bill, which passed the House and now faces stiff opposition in the U.S. Senate, was approved by a narrow 220 to 215 vote. Boren and 38 other Democrats opposed the bill. Boren was opposed to the bill’s government-run public health insurance option and thus sided with Republicans and other conservative Democrats.

The symbolism here is that Boren represents Oklahoma’s District 2, which encompasses southeastern Oklahoma. The district has an extremely high rate of uninsured people living in it. These uninsured people could potentially benefit from a public health insurance option.

In fact, according to The New York Times, Boren’s district has the highest rate of non-elderly uninsured people—a staggering 29 percent—of all the districts represented by Democrats who voted against the groundbreaking measure.

Boren’s district, of course, is conservative and many of its voters undoubtedly buy into the Fox News Tea Party rhetoric about a government takeover of health care. So is Boren simply expressing his constituents’ desires? What about the 29 percent of the people who are uninsured? Doesn’t he care about them, too?

The bottom line is that uninsured people, who drive up health care costs for everyone by understandably putting off medical treatment until their illnesses become serious and by flooding hospital emergency rooms, have no say in the debate, not even in Oklahoma District 2. This district represents exactly why the country needs health reform, but its representative—a Democrat—votes no.

Boren’s no vote and the high uninsured rate in his district represent a microcosm of the driving contradiction in the health care reform debate as the bill goes to the Senate. Until the contradiction is resolved or more progressive Democrats are elected to office or more people start speaking up against health insurance companies, there will be no substantial health care reform in this country.

(Update: Not all Democrats who voted no on the measure sided with Republicans like Boren. For example, U.S. Rep. Eric Massa also voted against the measure. His New York district has a 10 percent non-elderly uninsured rate. Massa voted no because he felt the bill didn’t go far enough. Mass supports a single payer health care system. He argued the bill ”will enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry, period.”)