Health Reform: Just Do It

It looks as though President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are going to take the next step and try to pass health reform by using the reconciliation process. It's about time. They should get on with it as soon as possible.

Click on the link if you would like to examine the actual facts of the proposal. Click on this link if you would rather see Sarah Palin's hysterical distortions. Or click here if you would like to see a FactCheck.org summary of the Republican plan that shows the Democratic plan covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan over a ten year period.

It's OK to use the reconciliation process, which would allow the Senate to conduct a majority vote instead of needing 60 votes to break a filibuster. That is because both the House and the Senate have already passed health reform bills. The quickest road from here would be for the House to pass the Senate plan. Then the House and Senate versions would be sent to a group composed of members from each chamber to iron out changes like getting rid of the Nebraska preferential Medicare clause. The "reconciled" bill would only need a majority in each House of Congress.

The final product, according to the President's proposal, would increase taxes on singles earning over $200,000 or married couples filing jointly making at least $250,000 by 2.5% and would assess a surcharge on family plans costing more than $27,500 beginning in 2018. That would allow subsidies to be provided to lower and moderate income families and to small businesses so they can afford to buy insurance, which will be offered on large "exchanges" just like the members of Congress select from.

Practices such as denying coverage for pre-existing conditions or dropping people who get sick would be prohibited. It would NOT be a "government takeover of health care." People would, in effect, just get subsidies to help buy private insurance.

Any further nod to bipartisanship will be in vain. The Congressional Republicans present at last Wednesday's Health Care Summit made that unmistakably plain. Republicans and Tea Party adherents will slam the Democrats if they pass any plan that disagrees with their "survival of the fittest" view of human society. Moderates and Democrats will ridicule them for showing themselves incapable of governing if they do not, and with justification. It's time to finish this, make it possible for several tens of millions of people to go to the doctor when they get sick, and move on to jobs.