Posted on 06/26/2009 5:50:37 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
What was once seen as preordained now seems problematic.
A massive reworking of the American health care system, with government as a central player, was thought to be unavoidable with the election of Barack Obama and large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. But gradually, as the public and conservative opposition has mounted, there is a real question as to whether we actually will see health care “reform” — at least anything resembling what liberal Democrats have pined for these many years.
The idea of health care reform — like “New Politics,” or “hope and change” — was most viable when it was most abstract. The CBO cost estimate of more than a trillion dollars and gradual disenchantment with a public option plan has stalled the health care reform train.
And now Congress seems stuck. Roll Call reports:
Capping off a month of intense negotiations on health care reform, a bipartisan group of senators who serve on the Finance Committee released a statement Thursday pledging to continue their effort to reach a consensus on legislation when Congress returns from its July Fourth recess.
[...]
“Reforming America’s health care system is a tremendous challenge, but it’s a challenge we simply have to face,” the senators said. “The issues facing reform are difficult and complex, but over the past several months, we’ve made progress toward workable solutions. As we have been for the last several weeks, we are committed to continuing our work toward a bipartisan bill that will lower costs and ensure quality, affordable care for every American.”
Various members of the Finance Committee met privately at least three times on Thursday but were not scheduled to meet again until after the July Fourth break.
While opposition mounted and Congress thrashed about for a solution, the president — with considerable assistance from ABC — tried once again to sell his brand of health care to the American people. But few tuned in and platitudes no longer will carry the day. The hard questions remain: what will be in the plan and how are we going to pay for it?
As details have come to light, criticism has increased and lawmakers have become more nervous. James Capretta explains that voting for the ObamaCare scheme may prove to be very unpopular:
The largest tax increase in decades, which would hit the middle-class too. The movement of tens of millions of people out of job-based coverage and into government-run insurance. Deep, arbitrary, and cost-shifting cuts in Medicare’s reimbursement rates. Job-killing mandates on employers. And, most especially, the prospect of government intrusion into medical practice and the rationing of care. These are all highly unpopular steps with most voters, and the Democratic strategy is predicated on somehow getting all of them passed in one bill.
Republicans and conservative activists have also gotten into the act. A health care open hearing sponsored by Americans For Tax Reform this week turned out a variety of activists — plus Senator Jim DeMint and former physician and current Congressman Tom Price — to make the case that health care reform need not amount to a government takeover of health care. DeMint’s plan echoes to a large degree John McCain’s campaign proposal: provide credits for individual health care purchase, rein in trial lawyers, and allow interstate insurance sales to bolster competition and reduce costs.
Ever so slowly the voices of administration critics are being heard. Following Wednesday’s ATR event, Shona Holmes of Patients United Now told Pajamas Media that Americans should be wary of going down the road which her native Canada and other countries like Britain have followed. Slowing losing her sight, she faced long waits for a specialist in Canada. Holmes came to the U.S. where she was promptly diagnosed with a brain tumor at the Mayo Clinic. If Americans go down the road of government-run, rationed care, she asks, where will they go for treatment?
And then there is Rick Scott who leads Conservatives for Patients Rights. He was also in attendance at Wednesday’s event and has begun an ad campaign to show the future of ObamaCare. CPR’s message: a government-run “effectiveness” board will put government bureaucrats in charge of, and ultimately ration, health care. By shedding a light on the plight of those in nationalized health care systems with patients who are forced to wait for vital care (and with doctors who must scam the system to obtain care for their patients), Scott’s group directly challenges the premise of ObamaCare — namely that it will improve health care in this country.
Word is slowly seeping out that Congress intends to have government boards provide binding advice on which procedures and treatment will be provided. As Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a physician and AEI fellow, points out: “The idea of an omnipotent board that makes unpopular decisions on access and price isn’t a new construct. It’s a European import. In countries such as France and Germany, layers of bureaucracy like health boards have been specifically engineered to delay the adoption of new medical products and services, thus lowering spending.”
Time is not on the side of those pushing for a government takeover of health care. As the public, Congress, and critics discuss what ObamaCare really means, the prospect of a massive new tax scheme, uber-regulation of health care insurance and procedures, and an unprecedented expansion of the scope and size of the federal government raises more and more doubts.
Do we really want the people responsible for Katrina, the Post Office, Amtrak, and the Obama stimulus plan delivering health care?
Yeah, cap-’n-trade will never get anywhere either.
The people need to kill Cap and Tax, Obamacare and Alien Amnesity. We then have a fighting chance to keep our Republic.
B’bye, gramps, grandma, mom, pops.
Hey, nice knowing ya, older brother, sister.........
You did remember me in your will. Right?
You are missing the point. The people WANT TO KILL our Replublic. They will all pass.
I’m saying if a bill as bad as cap and trade can pass the house, there is no reason to think “health deform” is dead either.
They just need a little more time to better coordinate with the private Insurers, the Pharmas and the Labor Movement. Once they are all on the same page we'll get it and it will simply add to the cost once it is imposed.
Has there ever been any Gov’t program that didn't spiral out of control. In this case they'll have the help of all of the aforementioned constituencies.
I think it is just too late to do anything to stop the magic Obummer now. I said by summer USA would be ruined, and he is right on track now.
You know I started out the day envisioning a scenario in which the house defeated this bill and Obama had to use a presidential veto which would be overridden on the military bill coming up for the new jet fighter. I thought his administration would be a one-term lame duck after that. Boy, what wishful thinking that was!!
You know Imade it 58 years WITHOUT Obummer’s help and I do not want or need his help now. I do not need him to tell me that he will ALLOW me to keep my doctor. He is such an arrogant little boy. To me he is just a little kid. I do not want or need his ideas, advice or anything else. And he and Michelle are not thin. He is way too skinny and eats junkfood like ice cream and burgers and fries, and she is OBESE from waist down. And anyone who smokes can lose eight while eating ice cream
I have now lost ALL HOPE!
Yeah, on the ropes like cap and tax.
None of the Criminal Conspiracies are on the ropes unless your politicians are more afraid of their constituents than of the Thugocrasy. Fear is probably the only thing that can save common sense.
Cap and trade was supposed to pass more easily than it did in the house.
The Senate is where it will die,
Even Harry Reid has said the votes are not there to pass it.
Jim Inhofe is confident that they can hold a filibuster, claiming the Dems can not muster more than 34 votes.
We narrowly lost a skirmish today.
It’s a long war.
Now is not the time to go wobbly.
I remember hearing the same refrain about McCain Feigold...Senate will never pass it...Bush will never sign it...SCOTUS will declare it unconstitutional...um guess what?
Regarding Obamacare, the "government boards" part of the proposal is a "killer" ~ not just of the patients, but of the bill.
Even if passed, the American public will not put up with the sort of crap Europeans regularly get out of their special medical review boards.
This country has a higher murder rate than Europe for several very good reasons ~ lots of redheads, lots and lots of hotheads, and myriads of people who prefer to think for themselves than to bow to any authority.
These special boards usually don't get very far here unless they provide a broadbased benefit to the users ~ e.g. milk pricing boards, vegetable boards, fruit boards, etc.
We are not, after all, Europeans!
I doubt in the short or long run that the Obamistas can get anyone to serve on such boards here ~ the risks are entirely too great.
Yeah, I remember all those stories about Cap and trade not seeing the light of day. And then there’s the gays/Arabs/ whoever are mad at him stories, right before he slaps us again by giving them something.
Bet all that stuff originates with good old Rahm.
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