Can you believe it? Are we entering Middle Ages?

Bush administration plans to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion on religious grounds. What????

Even Bush appointed legal counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the proposal would overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion.

WTF?

Employees of the pharmacies will be able to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives? Turn away Medicaid patients? Hospitals will not be required to offer emergency contraception to rape victims?

Healthcare reform anyone?

Economy is in crisis. So is healthcare. Will the Obama administration be able to move forward on both health insurance and various social/culture/civil rights issues surrounding access and choice? Or will their health care reform suffer the same fate as Clinton’s?

Democrats seem to be determined not to let it happen. Senators Max Baucus of Montana and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts “intend to aggressively pursue significant - and expensive -- healthcare legislation despite an expanding federal deficit and President-elect Barack Obama's intense focus on the ailing economy” (http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/11/senate_democrat.html).

It is impossible to cover all uninsured and underinsured without revamping the entire system. On the other hand, there’s no way to solve America’s economic troubles without fixing health care for the long term. The public agrees. Even the Big Business agrees. Is it the perfect storm we needed to get things done?

Baucus’s plan claims to employ a "holistic approach” and to address not only healthcare access but also costs. But will they move fast enough to capitalize on Obama's “honeymoon period”?