D-Day for Health Care Reform in America

The D-Day (as in “Defining-Day”) for health care reform in America arrives tomorrow, Sunday, March 21, 2010. Barack Obama has staked his young presidency on this bill. He will not become a lame-duck president if the bill fails to pass but there is no doubt that his image and effectiveness, at least in the short-term, will take a major hit.

Even among his die-hard supporters are those who feel that the president’s “obsession” with health care has diverted attention from the foremost problem facing America today: loss and lack of jobs. When Americans worry about having a roof over their heads or putting food on the table, seeing a physician becomes a luxury that can temporarily be dispensed with.

Yet there is also no denying that universal health care coverage is a right, not a privilege. Sure, the cost to the economy will be in hundreds of billions of dollars but can we, as a civilized and humane society, allow money and politics to trump what is fundamentally an ethical and moral issue? What kind of society will ours be if insurance companies continue to deny or revoke with impunity (the case of Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, is one of thousands of such cases) the coverage of Americans when they are afflicted with life-threatening conditions?

The idea underlying insurance companies is: Grab as much premium as possible from the healthy but exclude those who are sick. This macabre 'survival of the fittest' business model is unacceptable in any civilized society.

Obama’s administration has to bear responsibility for the cliffhanger that the health care bill has become. We Americans abhor serpentine language. We believe that if anything is worth fighting or dying for, we should be able to understand it without having to master the language of lawyers. Yet there has been no coherent explanation by the president or the democrats about why and how the heath care bill makes sense economically, socially and politically. Simply evoking the moral principle has played into the hands of Republicans. Their shrill warning that American capitalism, as we have known it for two hundred years, will die if the health care bill were to pass, has resonated with many fence-sitters simply because Democrats have not matched them in the “easy-to-understand” department. This is particularly ironic given the president’s reputation as a wordsmith and his facility in distilling an issue to its essence in words that can capture the imagination of Americans, as we saw repeatedly during his presidential campaign.

The American most passionate about health care reform was the “Liberal Lion of the Senate,” the late Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. That his seat is now occupied by a Republican who is against health care reform shows how far the fortune of the Democrats has fallen in a single year.

Yet I believe that tomorrow House Democratic leaders will find 216 votes to make the health care bill the law of the land. Like most Americans, I am a prisoner of hope (especially today, the first day of spring!) and I cannot accept the fact that 216 of our representatives will miss out on this historic milestone that will affirm the right of every American access to health care. It is almost as historic a milestone as the election of an African-American to the highest office in the land, and there will be enough, just enough, votes to see the bill through.

Obama Delivers with Health Care Speech

President Obama delivered on health care reform through his speech to Congress on September 9. Yes, it was only a speech but after months of vacillations and wrong signals, he cut through the lies and innuendos of Republicans and laid out his plan in clear, powerful language. It was vintage Obama and a persuasive call for action. The President’s health care bill has now a realistic chance of becoming law.

Obama had help, although from unexpected quarters. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina screamed “You lie!” when the President declared that illegal immigrants were ineligible for health care. Wilson was wrong and his indecorous behavior revealed the bankrupt tactics of the Republicans to undermine the President at any cost. Support for Obama swelled after the speech.

What also helped was Obama’s quoting the late Senator Kennedy’s last thoughts on the subject that he considered the ultimate goal of his life. "What we face," Kennedy wrote, "is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country." (Here is Kennedy's final letter).

A companion piece to read with Obama’s speech would be Food Guru Michael Pollan’s take on Big Food vs. Big Insurance. Much food for though there.

Now, full steam ahead on health care.

Moment of Truth for Obama’s Health Care Plan

Will it or won’t it? That is the question.

Will the public option, a government health insurance plan to compete with private insurers in the open market, remain a part of ObamaCare or will it have to be jettisoned to salvage the remaining reform pieces?

That the United States needs a better health care plan than what exists today is almost universally accepted. 47 million Americans are uninsured. Current health care is discriminatory and unfair. Administrative inefficiency is excessive. We spend almost 18% of our GDP on health care. That’s about 2.5 trillion dollars!

But Obama has so far failed to convince voters that his reform plan is the way to go.

In downtown San Jose recently I saw noisy protesters condemning the proposed program as inhuman and unacceptable. “We are not shovel-ready yet,” read a banner, held aloft by a couple in their ‘70s. In spite of the exponential growth in technological connectivity, we remain isolated in islands of ignorance and prejudice.

But this also is true: There is a strange lack of passion in the president’s attempt to convince voters of the soundness of his health care reform plan. What calls for rolling up the sleeves has instead brought us a theoretician’s ruminations, something the nation – rocked by recession - is in no mood for.

Forget the rabid right-wingers and manipulators, their outright lies about death panels, “pulling the plug on grandma” and socialism. The average American is beginning to question the president’s commitment to health reform. Has compromise been the goal all along? Is appeasing his most vocal opponents the president’s priority?

There is widespread fear and anxiety about what the future holds for health care in America that the White House hasn’t been able to dispel.

It is not too late for Obama to put his health care reform back on track, with the public option in place as it ought to be. But this will require the president to infuse his advocacy with the same passion that he poured into his presidential campaign. Too many voices from his corner are crowding out his message, leaving many perplexed and confused, while allowing his diehard opponents to spread their lies with impunity. “These are the reasons why you should vote for my health care reform plan,” the president should say, and then list his top 5 points with a clarity that anyone can understand. The only way he can combat the fiction of FOX and followers is with facts expressed in clear language. For a gifted orator and wordsmith, that shouldn’t be difficult.

P.S. With Ted Kennedy's passing today, it becomes that much more urgent for his fellow legislators to make health care available for every American. It was the goal that Kennedy worked for, "the cause of my life," until the very end of his life.