There is little question but that the health care bill about to be passed by Congress is far from perfect. Nonetheless, it is a giant step in the right direction, and will eventually be looked back upon as a significant achievement.Most human progress occurs incrementally. People are conservative by nature, accepting change in small bites (or, increasingly, bytes). Indeed, it would be impossible to re-make the health care system all at once, and it would be impossible to pass a "perfect" health care bill.
The Democratic party will probably even pay a steep price at the polls in the mid-term elections for the health bill, but it will be worth it as it's the right thing to do.
Over the coming years, Congress will have to tinker further with health care reform as the effects of change and reform become evident and we learn of things that did, or didn't, work out.
As is the case with most legislation that gets this emotional, the opponents of the health bill will soon realize that the roof hasn't caved in--that their health care really hasn't changed that much; likewise, the proponents will discover that many of the changes they had hoped for didn't materialize the way they wanted. But for several million Americans, life will improve significantly as they find themselves with access to adequate medical care. And that's progress.
1 comment:
The biggest flaw this bill should bring to light is the 60 vote rule in the Senate. The constitution does not require 60 votes.
Since the Republicans have decided to abdicate any and all interest in moving public policy forward, unifying in opposition to everything, it's time to amend the rules for cloture.
Then the health bill would not have been so heavily influenced by Lieberman, Nelson, Landrieu, etc.
(Of course, at some point in the future, the other party may be back in power.)
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