It’s Now or Never For Health Care Reform

The Clock Ticketh. Now is the time to overhaul a highly dysfunctional medical industry

If this past summer’s volatile town hall meetings on health care reform legislation say anything about the public opinion on an overhaul of the system, then the White House will need to figure out new ways to sell its reform message.   “Let’s win one for Teddy” became the new health care reform rallying cry at the news of Senator Ted Kennedy’s death last week.   It’s not the kind of rallying cry that anyone could have expected, but the emotional outpouring over Kennedy’s death may be the boost needed to salvage any hope of passing an extensive health care reform bill. 

For the most part, Kennedy’s death has suddenly caused everyone to step back and cool the rhetoric surrounding the health care debate.  If you’re the quintessential news junkie who’s spent the dog days of summer watching those town halls on C-SPAN or catching brief segments of them on YouTube, I’m sure you’ve heard of the dozens of Hitler invocations made at the events.    This kind of talk has no place in the debate on health care, and to play the Nazi card is a bipartisan sin.  With the passing of the last lion of liberalism, the debate on health care can now be reframed into a more civil dialogue.

It is exceedingly clear that our health care system is on an unsustainable path and to do nothing is not an option that any self-respecting member of Congress should be content with.  The White House needs to sell the bill more aggressively as a civil right.  More Americans need to believe that they have an inalienable right to health care.  Illness is not something that happens to someone that’s older than 65. Sickness and disease are not discerners of age, and they can strike anyone at any time. 

The most common form of health insurance in America is employer-based coverage, and it is terribly flawed. It is flawed from the discrimination on medical history to those dreadfully high costs. There is no reason for Americans to be afraid that if they were to lose their jobs they would lose their health care coverage or be forced to sell their homes to pay for medical treatment. 

It still seems highly unlikely that Republican lawmakers are prepared to soften their opposition to the public option (a government run insurance plan) which the late Ted Kennedy would have undoubtedly endorsed.  The sole purpose of the public option is to save money.  Our experience with Medicare suggests that this public option would lower costs, introduce more competition for health care providers, and lower premiums that tend to skyrocket.  A bill without this plan for a public option is not reform at all. 

The President has spent too much time trying to appease people that can’t be appeased, and who, in return for this appeasement, almost doomed the entire project.  But elections have consequences. If Republicans are unwilling to compromise and make concessions, the Democrats, who hold the majority in both houses of Congress, should go it alone.  After all, that’s exactly how most of former President Bush’s policies got through.  The Republican’s held the majority in Congress and were the president’s right hand rubber stamp.

Isn’t it appalling that every rich country except America guarantees healthcare to all of its’ citizens?  Look at the National Health Service in Britain.  The British government regulates the hospitals and is the employer of their doctors and nurses.  The illustrious Paul Krugman so astutely writes in his column, that every system has its problem but the key is to “combine quality care with low costs”. That is what matters most, dear readers.  To kill healthcare reform now as it was done in 1993 during the first few years of the Clinton administration will not do anyone good.  Though it was seen as the start of a conservative resurgence then, I doubt the same tactic can reap the same results now.  The medical industry in America is clearly something that is worsening day by day.      

The State of Massachusetts has implemented some reforms in 2006 that have greatly reduced the number of those uninsured.  Its reform laws required every resident of the state to obtain health insurance coverage.  The programs there aren’t perfect, but it has at least made great strides towards bringing health coverage to more and more of its citizens without much ado.  If worst comes to worst and a bill is not passed, this is something that should be replicated in other states across the country since change really starts at the bottom and works its way up.  But Congress and President Obama owe it to the American people to effect these changes.