Healthcare. So massive is it’s passing, I feel like we need to discuss it. I struggle, however, trying to wrap my arms around it and make sense of it. The basic tenants of it are good ones, and arguably ones that I would think most Americans would agree. A first response is how do we pay for this? A proper rebuttal may be we’ve already been paying for this for a long time. The fact that all of our uninsured fellow Americans use our hospital’s ERs for not only emergency but primary care, is costing us a ton ($500 billion in fact, which would now get cut as this reform remedies this situation). Unfortunately, no one has done a great job of crystallizing the exact impact of this bill. If you’ve read a good article, please share.
I did enjoy reading Joe Klein’s article in the April 5th issue of Time magazine titled: Promise Delivered. How Obama’s epic victory in pushing forward Health Reform revitalized his Presidency.” After reading it, despite the derision that exists in Washington now, you are assured that what just happened is a good thing, and sets a productive course for Obama moving forward. As Joe Klein states:
After a fist year in office that promised consequence but never quite delivered on it, he had done something huge. The comparisons with Jimmy Carter would abruptly come to an end. He was now a President who didn’t back down, who could herd cats, who was not merely intellectual and idealistic but tough enough to force his way. This is bound to change the landscape of American politics. It makes significant progress on other issues – financial reform, immigration, perhaps even the reduced use of carbon fuels – more plausible. It may give Obama new stature overseas, in a world that was beginning to wonder about his ability to use power.”
He finally has results to show after a long year of frustration. But change is always uncomfortable. I worry about the state of the House and Senate, and the heavy scars this debate has left in terms of implications for future positive movement and bipartisanship. I feel as if I’m left with many questions and ponderings:
- Has this whole mess been purely political, and the Republicans have been lobbying for a no vote on Healthcare to purely cripple Obama’s credibility as President, regardless of the benefits of legislation (a reported strategy back in 1994 when Clinton was trying to push health care reform)?
- While a majority of Americans still favor the passing of last week’s reform, I’m stunned by how vehement and nasty the protesting has been. Is it purely because its so difficult to know the true story behind the implications of this policy? And the fact that in a violence prone week, when emotions are running high, you have the formidable Sarah Palin twittering to her supporters – “don’t retreat, instead reload” – the implications of which completely scare me as she continues to gain more ground on the national scene.
- Isn’t it interesting that most people who say they oppose healthcare reform or the negatively positioned “Obamacare” are in favor of almost every tenant of the reform when asked about them individually?
- It is also interesting that the reform that passed was closely aligned to a universal healthcare plan that was constructed in Massachusetts and passed by then Governor Mitt Romney in 1993. Massachusetts then became the model for the federal plans offered in the 2008 campaign by Hillary Clinton and later adopted by President Obama. So the plan that was just passed had its roots in the Republican plan from Massachusetts. Interesting that Mr. Romney has even shied away from supporting or being associated with this plan.
While I do understand that this passed plan is far from perfect, it’s a start. And it leaves me thinking that now more than ever, we need to put politics aside. I end with a fitting quote from the Capital Journal:
“Social Security, Medicare, Civil Rights, a woman’s right to vote, ending slavery … every one of the major steps on America’s road to become a more democratic society has been marked by controversy and conflict. There is a reason why progressive leaders are the heroes and heroines of American history. They embody the values and aspirations that are at the core of American values.”
I know there are thousands of opinions out there about this reform. Please share your thoughts – is this a good thing or a bad thing for America?
3-30-2010 08:10:40
Here’s an easy read: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/health/30well.html?ref=health
3-30-2010 08:25:17
Thanks for the links and interesting reading. This is a tough issue. And I haven’t seen so much rage (and political violence) since the 1970s ….
4-5-2010 08:51:28
Health care reform is a necessary and good thing. None of the progressive legislation passed in the last 50 years was all that it needed to be when it was passed, but reform needs to start somewhere so it can be improved. I am extremely disappointed that Senator Olympia Snowe didn’t buck the republican machine and support what she helped to create. The nay sayers are complaining about everything right now, so those who want to make our country better need to move forward without them if need be.
4-6-2010 14:59:43
I’m getting caught up again with my favorite blogs after lifting my head out of my textbooks and wrapping up a wonderful family Easter get-together. So I’m a little late to this, but I thought, “Better late than never!”
Anyway, here’s how I look at this issue. Look at America’s political ideology over the last 100 years. Then see what an anomaly we’ve endured for the last 30 years. I say that because reforming health care delivery in America has been a bipartisan issue for 70 of the last 100 years. In that larger time frame, both Democratic AND Republican Presidents have supported the effort to improve how health care is delivered in America. Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Harry Truman to Lyndon Johnson to Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton have all supported this effort. More recently, Mitt Romney, a Republican governor in Massachusetts, helped create health insurance reform in that state — reform that is very similar to what was recently passed through Congress.
When I worked for Blue Cross, I learned that, the larger the pool of people covered, the better the rate for everyone. In the past, we’ve all paid for uninsured people — we’ve just paid for them in the most expensive way possible, at the ER, and often when they could have been treated earlier and had a better outcome if they had seen a general practitioner or specialist much earlier. Because we didn’t pay for the “stitch in time,” we paid later for the “nine” stitches in the ER — if the person even lived to get to the ER.
Medicare was VERY controversial when it was first passed. There were people then who thought it would lead to a government takeover of our health care system. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) Yet today many Americans rely on this coverage. And I don’t see people on Medicare tearing up their Medicare cards because they can get better insurance rates through private insurers.
I think in a few years, we’ll look back on this time and think, “Wow! Can you believe there was a time in America when we thought it was okay to let people die because they didn’t have health care coverage?”