Nov 24, 2009

Health Care Bill: Template for Future Defeats?

The Senate's 60-39 vote to begin debate on health care reform is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, that direction is one that's bound to yield a weak, toothless bill (if one even emerges). For opponents of the bill, this is more about defeating Obama anyway than it is about defeating an ineffectual piece of legislation. The President's opportunity to exercise Johnson-esque tactics with Congressmen has come and gone. Now, all he can hope for is victory, any victory, even if it's an eviscerated bill that, among other shortcomings, allows states to opt-out of the public option.

I do hope a bill, any bill, reaches Obama's desk for signature. If it doesn't, I'm afraid the balance of his presidency will become as ineffectual as the bill that never made to his desk. The administration's handling of the healthcare debate will become the template for failure (or the game-plan for defeating Obama) on every subsequent reform he puts out there.

Point is, when it comes to health care reform, no matter how the debate turns out (bill or no bill), the only real winners are going to be the big insurance companies. Their monopolies will continue to grow. Their profits and executive compensations will continue to soar. In the end, Big Insurance's influence over the U.S. Congress will have come full-circle for those Senators and Representatives whose political lives seem to live and die by the contributions and lobbying efforts of the insurance industry.

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