Health Care reform - Just pass it - it is a start point not a destination
Just a little editorial to start your Friday - Pass the Health Care bill
I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. My stance has been pretty consistent - Some form of a single payer system like Medicare for all. A Medicare buy-in would be wonderful. The proposed Health Care bill is not that at all. Not even close. In the end, we get mandated coverage with no public option, delayed benefits and Insurance companies seem to be in the drivers seat. Many items don’t kick in for a couple of years.
That is why all last year, I worked actively to get as strong a bill as possible, Challenged electeds in the Democratic party who used compromise as starting point not a closing tactic. Challenging those organizations who supported such mentality at the expense of what I deemed common sense. From my perspective, I was pretty fierce publicly and privately. Privately, it did cost me some relationships with folks in activist circles.
Still - I think we have arrived at the end game. It’s over folks -in order to keep the idea of Health Care reform alive and the conversation still on the table - we need to pass a bill - this bill.
- It provides some improvement to some people’s lives. The bill certainly can be improved, made better, all of that but…
- Starting over and trying to get a “better bill” isn’t going to happen because we won’t get a better bill - we get nothing. The GOP gets to claim victory tout obstruction as a success tactic.
- It gives Democrats - a success point. The Democrats need to prove that they can govern - something they haven’t been able to do the past year as their legislative agenda has stalled in the Congress. Look if you are reading this blog you are somewhere between knee and neck deep in political sausage making meaning you are in the minority. Most people haven’t a clue as to what is going on. Passage of this bill moves the Health Care conversation to other aspects - the economy and immigration and so on -
- Passage of this bill provided a real, concrete starting point for continued health care conversation. It moves health care reform from theory to reality. It also provides something to tweak.
Finally, this - those electeds, groups or individuals who believe the health care bill and all that went into it is some sort of success model or destination to hold up as the shining light on the hill. I say - no. Those who buy into that belief - that shining light is simply a bug zapper. Mark my words, we will be revisiting Health Care. Passage of this bill simply means that we will revisit it w/in several years as opposed to another couple of generations.
Related posts:
-At the expense of the quality of other people’s lives.
-There is no merit to that argument.
-That is pure ideological blindness. The bill affects real people, whether or not the Dems get a win or loss is not relevant.
-The starting point is the current set of health care regulations. Adding more bad regulations is not a starting point, it is a path in the wrong direction. Tweak what we have now with real, incremental, verifiable reforms.
Guys like you should love this bill Mike. There is no onerous public option set to suck the life out of private insurers, and most of the cost control measures are decentralized, spread out over the entire system, through pilot programs, and administrative cost controls among others. As has been accurately reported, much of this bill looks a lot like what the Senate GOP wanted do instead of Clinton’s health care bill.
And what of this shit about “at the expense of the quality of others lives”? You know what’s bad for society? Having hard working people go bankrupt because they break their arm, or need surgery. You know what else is bad for society? Having the uninsured used emergency rooms as PCP, dramatically driving up costs for the rest of us. Talk about lowering the quality of everyone’s lives, Insurance companies rejecting treatment and dropping people because they have a pre-existing condition is terrible, since we pick up the bill anyway!
Our health care system is so f’ed that this incremental non-sense is just a fall back position for those who don’t care about the millions who suffer every day.
Your “this reform is better than no reform” position is what is nonsense. I have never defended the status quo for health care. In fact, I have identified many facets that need change. BUT, I refuse to go along with change that is worse than nothing, just for the sake of change. A 2000+ page bill that affects 1/6 of the economy and 100’s of millions of lives, that no one really understands, is not an intelligent choice.
Ah, the old “start over… because the status quo is working fine for ME and MY INVESTMENTS”.
Pass the bill.
Then elect better Democrats to fix it!
I agree. And don’t forget to call your elected Congresscritters to tell them to pass it!
OK. I give. Pass the darn thing and move on. People are suffering. Another jobless recovery. Thank heavens for this beautiful sunshine, other then that all I am feeling is darkness.
Laws are like sausages. It is best to not see them being made.- Otto von Bismarck
YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!
Stlo7: thanks for expressing a lot of what I’ve been feeling.
I, too, wanted to have Medicare for all or something a lot closer to it. I, too, was disappointed in the shape this bill was taking.
But in the end, there are good things in this bill that need to be acknowledged– good enough to make it pass on their merits. Please let me add to your list:
* Many people who do not currently have health insurance will, in the future, thanks to the encouragement that this bill gives to employers to provide health insurance (including subsidies to small businesses)
* Many others will be able to purchase health insurance thanks to direct subsidies
* Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny (including retroactively) you coverage based on pre-existing conditions
* Individuals who are not members of a group will be able to obtain affordable coverage through the exchanges
* The costs of the bill are paid for– and then some: in the net, it will dramatically reduce the Federal budget deficit
* End of the day, fewer people will go bankrupt as a result of poor health
* End of the day, fewer people will die prematurely as a result of lack of insurance
I’d rather have a better bill. But this bill isn’t just better than no bill at all– it has some real and tangible benefits that make it worth supporting.
Let’s work, in the future, to add a Medicare buy-in for all, better subsidies (perhaps a voucher for every resident? that would be true universal coverage!), and better cost containment.
But for now, this bill is worth passing.
Yeah, just pass it. They didn’t get Social Security right the first time….or did they?
Just to be clear - Health Care is worth passing now because unlike say last year it is a choice between this or nothing. The fight for a better bill, pushing the health care discussion to the left which included push back on HR 3200 and all that was certainly worth it and more importantly necessary.
You wrote:
I think that’s absolutely true. I think that a large part of the past year’s discussion on healthcare was everyone playing their role.
Congressional Republican’s role was to push for status quo. In the end, public opinion is against them– the public wants something done on healthcare and they like the individual elements of the bill, even if the generic polling isn’t as positive– and that helps seal the deal that something gets done.
“Conservadems” had the role of pushing for a bill that they felt was palatable enough to sell in the less progressive areas of the country.
The role for “Progressives” was to push for the best bill we could get at this time. Do I wish it had been more progressive and better? Sure. But the bill we have is better than the current state of affairs. Pass it and build on it.
We’ve played our roles; let’s hope the endgame works out the way it appears to be going (passage of the bill).
All one needs do is read this story in the D&C [3-20-2010] to see evidence of another hole shot into the myth that privatization is somehow necessarily better, less costly or more efficient than a government provided service.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20100320/NEWS01/3200352/1003/Lawsuits-snag-medical-care-provider-for-Monroe-jails
The jail medical care problem has absolutely no relevance to health care for non-incarcerated people. It does show that when private services go awry, there is redress through the legal system. That is generally not true for government provided services.
Good health care reform legislation–I mean really good–would/should be an easy sell to Americans, Dems and Reps.
Obama isn’t doing his bipartisan thing by trying to get Republicans to vote yes on great health care reform legislation. Instead he is begging Democrats to support really crappy legislation.
This is total nonsense Tom. The Republicans will vote against whatever the Democrats come up with. A bill this complex and wide ranging is only possible through great struggle - and yes partisanship - and this is the best possible bill in these circumstances. If we were to hold out for what you want, we’d get nothing. For millions of Americans, that’s unacceptable.
A success point????? Like Bush and the Republicans had success with No Child Left Behind and Medicare drug coverage?
dfaTom.
that is because Obama has been told that not 1 of the republicans will support any consessions that is made on this bill. The republicans should be supportive of this bill because much of what they requested (ie demanded) has been added or taken out. The fact that they are still voting no is because of politics. There have been several additions that the republicans wanted many sacrifices that the democrats wanted. If people would just stop playing politics and look at what is in the best interest of this country maybe things would actually improve. for all residents. If people would stop playing politics and stop using lies and scare tactics and actually READ what is being suggested by this reform there would be a lot more support.
Politicians know that most people will not read 2000+ pages of beurocratic paperwork so they can tell them the lies they know will outrage them to form their opinions.
Then elect better Democrats to fix it