March.
Colorectal cancer awareness month.
NCAA basketball tournaments.
And health care reform legislation.
These are a few of the mad and shining moments in my life right now.

I’ve been away from the blog because I’ve been *living* my life out loud, and it’s been a heckuva time these last 10 days.

First things first – I am pretty sure that some of the point guards on the SU basketball team could hit a three-point shot from Syracuse TO Salt Lake City. But I’m really glad they’ll actually be IN Salt Lake before they have to try. And I’m really glad Cornell will be playing it’s berth in the Sweet 16 right here at home in central NY, in the Carrier Dome.
But enough of that madness.

I spent last week in DC, lobbying with the Colorectal Cancer Coalition (C3) for representatives to co-sponsor and senators to support with a Senate version Texas Republican Kay Granger’s H.R. 1189 and Oklahoma Democrat Dan Boren’s H.R. 1330. These bills will (respectively) increase access to colorectal cancer screening and treatment, and close loopholes that permit private and group insurers to deny coverage for colonoscopies. We were also asking for an increase in funding for fiscal year 2011 for the Department of Defense’s Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program, which this year began to fund colorectal cancer research. Learning how to lobby, how to make your voice as effective as possible was an intense experience I hope to repeat next year – but more about that in another post.

And then yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives stepped up and passed legislation which, after reconciliation with the Senate bill passed in December, 2009, will make health care reform a reality in the U.S. This is the take on that vote, from the Drug Industry Association Daily Briefing:

House Passes Healthcare Reform Measure By 219-212 Tally.
In what media reports and analyses are casting as a historic development and a major win for President Obama, the House Sunday night passed the Senate-approved healthcare reform measure by 219-212. The AP (3/22) notes that after passing the bill, the House proceeded to approve “key changes” to it, “part of a prearranged agreement to guarantee passage of the historic legislation. The changes passed by a 220-211 vote. That bill now goes to the Senate for final approval, where it only requires a simple majority to pass.”
Most stories are describing the bill in largely favorable terms — and the vote as a triumph of the political system as a whole. The vote, reports USA Today (3/22, Wolf, Fritze), “assured that about 32 million Americans will gain health insurance coverage, and millions more will win protections against losing theirs.” The Los Angeles Times (3/22, Levey, Hook, Silva, Muskal) reports that “House Democratic leaders proved they could hold the majority caucus together,” though “thirty-four Democrats opposed the bill, as did all Republicans.” An AP (3/22, Woodward) story observes, “Rarely does the government, that big, clumsy, poorly regarded oaf, pull off anything short of war that touches all lives with one act, one stroke of a president’s pen. Such a moment has come.”
It was, Bloomberg News (3/22, Litvan, Rowley, Jensen) notes, “the most sweeping US healthcare legislation in four decades,” and “the biggest victory yet for…Obama.”
The Los Angeles Times (3/22, Nicholas) reports, “Rarely does a president bet everything on a single card, but…Obama did it on healthcare,” and “what became clear in the…debate is that Obama is a president with a combative stubbornness, one that was not often visible in his cool, above-the-fray public demeanor.”
In a front-page story, the New York Times (3/22, A1, Bernard) reports, “The uninsured are clearly the biggest beneficiaries of the legislation, which would extend the healthcare safety net for the lowest-income Americans.” Meanwhile, “for people already covered by a large employer — most Americans, in other words — the effect would not be as significant. And yet, just about everyone might benefit from tighter insurance regulations.” The Times adds, “There is no question that the legislation should benefit consumers in various ways.” In a separate front-page story, the New York Times (3/22, A1, Pear, Herszenhorn) notes that “Democrats hailed the vote as historic, comparable to the establishment of Medicare and Social Security and a long overdue step forward in social justice.”
McClatchy (3/22, Doyle) reports that “Pelosi has already made the history books, and now she’s written a new chapter in wielding power.” The vote, says The Hill (3/22, Cusack), “showed…why she is one of the most powerful Speakers in history.” Pelosi “achieved what some thought what was impossible after Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts two months ago.”
McClatchy (3/22, Lightman, Douglas) reports that “within a year, insurers” will “be barred from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions, imposing lifetime limits on coverage and dropping people from coverage when they get sick.” The bill also “provides more help with insurance premiums for lower- and middle-income consumers and expands Medicaid funding to states.” Politico (3/22, O’Connor) reports that it was “a legislative landmark Sunday night that has eluded generations of lawmakers” — one that provides a “climatic finale to a yearlong saga that has taken its toll on the president and his party” while securing “a historic win for Obama while providing his party with some much-needed momentum after a long, grueling slog.” The Washington Times (3/22, Haberkorn) also notes that “Democrats hailed the vote as one of the most significant change[s] in American social policy since the creation of Medicare in 1965 or Social Security in 1935.”

I’ve really been enjoying this heckuva ride, this display of shining moments (what did G.W. Bush Sr. call them? oh yeah, some crazy million points of light!) that we’ve lit up in the sky this March. Let’s keep ‘em coming, America.