Opinion Columnists
Email
Print
A chance for health reform
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: April 28, 2009
Updated: 04/27/2009 11:50 pm
President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders agree that health-care reform is overdue and should bed passed this summer. Or this could be another cicada moment. The view in Washington is that health-care reform is like the cicada. It comes around every 17 years, makes a lot of noise and then disappears.
Ron Pollack, the head of Families USA, a health-consumer advocacy group, offered the cicada analogy at a news conference. But while he and others are hopeful, health-care reform is not a done deal.
Conservatives are arrayed against reform, which they see as socialist. Some liberals are wary that key provisions will be dropped as part of a compromise. And there is talk that the Democrats could try to use a budgeting procedure known as reconciliation to push the measure through without Republican support.
How much really has changed since Harry and Louise scared people off Bill and Hillary Clinton's universal health-care proposal in 1993? Thirty-seven million people lacked health insurance when a TV ad paid for by the Health Insurance Association of America galvanized people against the Clinton brand of reform. In the ad, Harry and Louise are sitting at their kitchen table, worried about the bureaucracy and lack of choices in the Clinton plan. The ad hit a nerve, and people in droves wrote and called their congressmen, urging them to vote no on "HillaryCare."
Once again, a popular president promises reform. There is a consensus that U.S. business can't compete in a global economy with escalating health-care costs. But while the Clinton plan was conceived in secrecy, Sen. Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has held more than 20 public hearings. Sen. Edward Kennedy, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has returned to Washington, despite battling brain cancer, to meet with various groups.
Baucus and Kennedy wrote Obama, saying they planned to have very similar bills ready in June. Three House committees are working through legislation and could have a bill on the House floor by August.
In the meantime, the ranks of the uninsured have grown to 43 million. Health care consumes 17 percent of GDP, and health-care costs are escalating. Harry and Louise have changed their tune.
The couple made a comeback in a TV ad during last year's Democratic and Republican national conventions. This time, Harry and Louise agree that the next president should put health care at the top of his agenda. Five diverse groups sponsored the ad -- the National Federation of Independent Business, Families USA, American Hospital Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the Catholic Health Association.
Obama convened a health-care summit soon after he took office, and a team of White House officials is working with Congress to get a bill passed. He put a $634 billion down payment on reform in his budget. But the ailing economy and heavy stimulus spending have dominated his and the nation's attention.
One sticking point is the public plan. Obama promised an option for people to buy into the same health-insurance coverage members of Congress have. Those who want to stick with their private insurance plans could also do so. Some analysts say that millions would flock to a public plan, which could hurt private insurers. Much depends on how Obama brands his reform and whether critics get to it first.
The government already picks up the tab for nearly half of the nation's health care. Public plans cover the poor, working poor, the elderly, disabled and the military. One simple way to expand coverage is by extending Medicare to cover other age groups. The incremental approach works. Public health plans cover about one in five Americans younger than 65. But most people under 65 have private insurance.
If Obama can persuade these Harrys and Louises to tell their senators and congressmen to embrace change, health-care reform could happen soon.
• Marsha Mercer is an independent columnist in Washington. She can be reached at marsha.mercer@yahoo.com.
Email
Print
