Health Insurance Reform

In 1945, during the last triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune, the United States Congress passed the McCarran-Ferguson Act, legislation that allowed state law to regulate insurance companies without interference from the federal government. This year, as Jupiter and Neptune again conjoin with Chiron for the first time in 64 years, Congress is deliberating as to whether it should repeal this law and remove the federal anti-trust exemption that health insurance companies presently enjoy.

Insurance companies are ruled by Pluto and we are less than a month away from the Saturn ingress into Libra, its exaltation in the sign of justice, and the formation of the first square with Pluto in Capricorn, the sign of corporate monopolies. As Saturn perfects this waning square with Pluto, it is simultaneously conjoining the USA Sibly chart Midheaven in 1° Libra.

As the Midheaven symbolizes the leader of the nation, President Obama is directly affected by this Saturn-Pluto square. He and his administration are spoiling for a fight against the health insurance lobby as they try to pass health care reform legislation this year, and a fight is what he now has on his hands.

With the upcoming Mars retrograde station in 19°41′ Leo on December 20th, its direct station in 0°17′  Leo on March 10th, and the Mars ingress into Virgo not until June 7th, 2010, one sees that we will have Mars transiting the sign of Leo for over seven and one half months.

For the president, this means three Mars transits of his natal Sun in mid-November, and again on January 22nd and April 30th of next year. In addition, a stationary transit opposition of Mars to his natal Jupiter will form between February 23rd and March 27th of 2010. Combining this with the stationary opposition of transit Uranus to his natal Mars from October 15th until January 16th, Mr. Obama is just now gearing up to defiantly take the fight to the defenders of the status quo in the health care industry who oppose efforts to reform the system during the present Saturn-Uranus oppositions.

As I wrote in my my August 17th TMA blog, The Jupiter-Neptune Conjunctions of 2009:

“During this part of the year when both Jupiter and Neptune are retrograde, one sees much misinformation being spread about proposed health insurance reforms by small-minded and self-serving politicians. After Jupiter and Neptune station direct on October 12 and November 4, respectively, the health care reform legislation will evolve into its final framework and be passed by both Houses of Congress and signed into law by the President before December 21.”

December 21st is the date of the third and final alignment of Jupiter and Neptune this year. With Jupiter in stationary conjunction with President Obama’s natal Ascendant from September 8th until November 16th, he is on the right side of this legislative fight to reform the health insurance companies. One should not be surprised if the “public option” of federal health insurance plans designed to compete with the private sector insurance plans makes its way into the final legislation signed into law in December.

The Obama presidency is also involved in a fight with the Fox News Network, with administration officials describing the cable channel as a propaganda wing of the Republican Party. The president still has a progressed Mercury-Mars conjunction within its one degree separating orb – an apt symbol of the current heated verbiage going back and forth between the White House and Fox News officials.

Mr. Obama’s progressed Mercury in 24° Libra was just conjoined by the October 18th New Moon in that degree. Some unexpected carping has been leveled against Mr. Obama by the New York Times, with a recent editorial by the African-American columnist, Charles M. Blow, going so far as to state:

“When, Mr. President? When will your deeds catch up to your words? … When will the president take the risk of standing up for his convictions on health care instead of sacrificing good policies for good politics?”

This criticism of Mr Obama being all talk and no action comes on the heels of his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor that many journalists have demeaned by stating that it has come too early in his presidency and before he has accrued any real accomplishments as a leader.

Examining the symbol for Libra 25, the degree of the president’s progressed Mercury and the degree of the recent New Moon, we find Sepharial’s translation of La Volasfera to be:

An elevated promontory, illumined by the noonday sun and crowned with many and variously coloured flowers.

“It indicates a nature that is prone to self-conceit, amenable to flattery, proud in heart but light-headed and trifling in many relationships of life. It may confer considerable personal charm and attractiveness, and will render its subject the recipient of many of fortune’s favours. It is a degree of ELEVATION.”

This analysis by Sepharial appears to precisely capture the emerging misgivings and skepticisms about President Obama, that perhaps he is an empty suit who is all talk and no action. Astrologers saw this coming in his natal square between the Sun and Neptune, a slippery aspect capable of unconstrained expectations followed by disappointment and disillusionment.

Our new, young president who has charmed the world with his oratorical eloquence, his sophisticated elegance, and his biracial identity symbolizing the progressive promise of the United States, now arrives at the first of three Saturn transits over his progressed Sun.

His leadership will be severely tested between now and the third transit of Saturn in July 2010. His political judgment will be castigated by both Democrat and Republican alike, and a full plate of domestic and foreign affairs including troop levels in Afghanistan, health insurance reform strategies, his handling of the economy, and his engagement with Iran over its nuclear program will all weigh upon him like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the mountain slope.

If one were to speculate about an inevitable outcome of the Obama presidency, premature as it may be, his rising degree is sobering in its assessment of a precarious fate, yet one resulting in eventual salvation.

Aquarius 19 from Sepharial’s translation of La Volasfera:

A boat upon the sea to which a submerged man is clinging for support.

“This symbol is related to one in whose life some great catastrophe will occur at a time when providentially there will be a friend at hand to rescue him from his danger. It indicates that a deficiency of tact and skill is liable to render him subject to adversity of fortune, and he will suffer financial disaster and even peril of death. But there will be raised up to him a friend capable of sustaining him in his extremity, and he will not therefore sink into the depths. This will be in response to his great faith. The nature, although daring, is lacking in tact and strength. All his troubles will arise from failing to admit his own incompetence. He will travel afar. It is a degree of INSECURITY.”

© 2009 Robert P. Blaschke