The Senate bill is flawed, no question. Ezra Klein goes over some of the strengths and weaknesses. Ezra documents that with all its flaws, the bill would still be a huge, positive benefit for millions of Americans, putting them at far less risk of health or financial disaster.
The bill as written should reduce the federal deficit and help rein in spiraling health care costs. “And the bill does all this while covering more than 30 million people, ending the ability of insurers to discriminate based on preexisting conditions, creating a new and more competitive insurance market, taking the first steps away from fee-for-service medicine, and much more,” Ezra writes. He concludes,
In the world where we pass the bill, most everything gets somewhat better, if not good enough. More people have insurance. The insurance industry ditches its worst practices. Fewer families go medically bankrupt. More people catch diseases early, when they can be cured, rather than late, when they become fatal. People who would otherwise have died live. The medical system begins the process of updating itself for the 21st Century, and responding to the cost pressures it’s placing on the rest of the country.
The world in which we kill the bill is a world in which everything just continues to get worse, and politicians are scared away from the issue for decades. A world in which we pass the bill is a world in which things get better, and politicians remember that they can pass big pieces of legislation that take on, or begin taking on, big problems.
If we had a reasonable expectation that Congress would start over and come up with a better bill next year, it would make sense to kill this one. But you know they won’t do that. You know it would be many years before they take up health care reform again. It’s been, what, 15 years since the last attempt?
Think of this bill as a foot in the door. Once provisions begin to go into effect, once people realize their lives are less in jeopardy, there are no death panels, and Soviet tanks don’t appear in the streets, most Americans will support it, and more reforms will be possible. Yes, I agree with Digby that a large portion of Americans are so lost in their mythic fantasy land they wouldn’t recognize reality if it showed up with fireworks and a brass band. But I think that while most Americans can be confused and bamboozled about new or foreign things, once they have direct experience with something they are not so easily fooled. They saw through George Bush’s Social Security privatization scheme, for example.
So, yes, pass the bill.
…I’ve never made it all that much of a secret that I’m not a poster child representing the Pure True-Blue Progressive. Heck, I facilitate the killing of federal trees for a living, and what kind of job is that for a True Blue Progressive? The bottom line for me is pretty simple and self serving: Single payer would be nice and public option would be nice and – in lieu of a public option – the medicare buy-in would be nice (for people my age), but I have a teenager with Type 1 diabetes. That is a King Hell preexisting condition that would render my second-born virtually incapable of even getting coverage health insurance coverage at any price…
Do I want to see the obvious coverage flaws fixed? Well, YEAH! But I’ve got other fish to fry right now, so I am absolutely all the way in on “Pass The Bill”…
I really wish they would make the benefits vest before the 2012 election. Vesting after 2012 will allow Republicans to run in 2012 on “Vote for us or next year there will be death panels and Soviet tanks in the streets” while Democrats run on “Vote for us or all those benefits we promised you back in 2009 won’t materialize.” Making the benefits vest in 2012 will allow the Democrats to run on “Vote for us or the Republicans will take away your health insurance” while Republicans run on “But we have to take your insurance or Soviet tanks will appear in the streets.”
I can tell you who I’d bet on in each case.
Before backing what is currently being proposed, we should realize that there will be additional negotiations and changes to attempt to reconcile the house and senate versions. But it is better than nothing, and it is unfortunate that these are the terms in which we judge legislation to be good or not.
My parents will be taking a bath on this bill. They’ll be hit with both the Cadillac tax, and being just above the subsidy line to get nothing.
If, if the bill passes on Christmas Eve, then maybe the House can negotiate some of the better aspects of their bill when they sit down with the Senate.
It’s at least a start, all right…
“…and more reforms will be possible.”
I agree the bill should be passed, no question. But what makes anyone think that the vested interests which prevented features from being included in the bill are going to permit them to be passed in another form later? Social Security was expanded in a time before special interests had secured such a firm grip on the legislature. What could be done then and what can be done now are not necessarily the same thing and, in any case, Congress is likely to become less liebral in the next couple of elections, not more so.
Support passage of this bill, but don’t do so based on it being just a foundation for expansion. It may be, but counting on it being so is more wishful thinking than realistic.
I’m in agreement with Arianna Huffington who seems to have finally turned against the bill.
The Senate bill in its current form is not worth passing. It will not be “fixed later,” and passing this worthless piece of sh*t legislation now could make it even more difficult to get real reform. Plus, it will just reinforce the existing broken system by which lobbyists control the whole legislative process.
We’ve already seen how “No Child Left Behind” got “fixed later.” Ditto for fixing the TARP bailouts after Bush left office.
Mark my words – those of you who are supporting this bill now because “it’s better than nothing” will regret it later. It’s a “foot in the door” alright – for those who own shares in pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations.
Not one repug voted for this bill coming out of the senate. So im for it.
I agree the reforms in the senate bill is better than nothing, also Ezra makes the excellent point: “The world in which we kill the bill is a world in which everything just continues to get worse, and politicians are scared away from the issue for decades”. The bill as flawed as it may be appears to be all the senate has the stones to pass. This whole process has exposed many in the democratic caucus as shills for corporate healthcare. So the “culture of corruption†continues even under a liberal president and a democratic congress. I think Obama should drop the Cap and Trade for now and insist on real campaign reform. Lessening the influence of corporate money in our legislative process now will make any reforms be they environmental or social in the future actually possible.
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Oh, keep your pants on. There are all kinds of automatic spam filters on this blog because I get slammed with hundreds of spam a day. I don’t always know why the spam filters stop a particular message, but I do check the queue several times a day to dig out whatever is stuck. So deal with it.
The Senate bill in its current form is not worth passing. It will not be “fixed later,†and passing this worthless piece of sh*t legislation now could make it even more difficult to get real reform. Plus, it will just reinforce the existing broken system by which lobbyists control the whole legislative process.
What is your alternative? The status quo? Because if this bill fails it will be years before they try again.
I think it’s easy for wealthy and / or well-insured people like Huffington and Hamsher to want to kill the bill, but the fact is that if serial breast cancer survivor Hamsher weren’t privileged enough to have financial resources and good insurance, she’d be dead now. So excuse me if I don’t take her seriously.
“So deal with it.” OK!
“I’m in agreement with Arianna Huffington who seems to have finally turned against the bill.”
Arianna Huffington will take whatever position is likely to get her on one of the cable blather fest shows. She is nothing but a bomb thrower, the left wings Orly Taitz, Oily Taint or what ever her name is.
Off Topic – This just makes me shake my head – yeah, our elected officials are SO in touch with the way WE live. Maybe commercial first class and chartered planes are just TOO plebian.
Roll Call reports that Inhofe “was absent to fly his wife home to Oklahoma in advance of the Christmas holiday but that he is headed back to Washington, D.C., for this week’s remaining votes.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/22/coburn-pray-inhofe/#comments
It’s a bill that only a lobbyist could love. What will happen if some version of the Senate’s healthcare reform bill doesn’t pass now? For starters, ask yourself what if LBJ had bailed on Medicare in 1965 because the special interests made it impossible to cover the whole population?
I know, if you’re wealthy it’s NOT welfare. IOKIYAR. Only little people pay taxes. Let them eat cake, blah blah blah
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/22/bachmann-farm-subisidies_n_400608.html
Socialist Health Care? Looks like a caption contest.
http://wonkette.com/412873/americas-new-health-care-plan
House caves on healthcare to Senate.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/house-braces-for-final-painful-compromises-but-leadership-confident-theyll-win-over-more-blue-dogs.php?ref=dcblt
Socialist Health Care? Looks like a caption contest.
How about private stitches. Maybe you could sew yourself? What if you can’t get shot in public? How about your left to your own devices, no matter what, it don’t matter how loud you cry….Depending on your age, hair color, general likeabilty, you could be either accepted or refused. But one thing is sure. Socialism is coming.
Socialist Health Care? Looks like a caption contest.
What to put on display in the lobby? Copy of “My Pet Goat” read on the a.m. of 9/11? Nah – this place will have too many books. Flight Suit worn on “Mission Accoplished” tour? Wait – this is Texas – Saddam Hussein’s pearl handled AK-47. We had to give that back? Never mind – I got nothin.
They talk about a think tank called the “George W. Bush Institute.” I’m thinking not so much tank as the little bowls they use for goldfish at carnivals.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/22/bush-ideas-action/#comments
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