Ezra Klein at the American Prospect says now may be right the right time for health care reform. Klein argues:
In economics, there's a famous dictum known as Stein's Law: It states that when something cannot go on forever; it will stop. Our health care system, as currently composed, cannot go on forever. It will wreck our economy, collapse our businesses, and render both private and public insurance unaffordable. And so, it will stop. Reform is not a question of if, but when, and how.
But in addition to saying it's time for health care, Klein looks at where the first Clinton administration went wrong. Timing was the issue there -- the country wasn't ready -- but the Clinton administration also approached the issue with a wrong-headed strategy.
"I was the biggest mistake of the Clinton health care bill," says Sara Rosenbaum, who sat in a hotel room with other policy experts and drafted the legislation. "It was a terrible error to have the President doing what Congress was supposed to do. It was a misuse of the relationship between the legislative branch and the executive branch. The executive branch is supposed to generate action and the committees are supposed to actually take the action. By sending a 1,300 page bill, you're writing a detailed blueprint for the policy rather than using the congressional process to create a consensus."
Whoever the next president is, hopefully he or she will have learned that lesson and work to build a consensus rather than dictate legislation. If so, they're likely to find that the timing also better.
The pain level has increased now to where those who have the money and power are feeling it. It's easy for the rich and powerful to ignore the problems of the poor, but now health care costs are tapping into profits and that means everyone's well-being is at stake.
As citizens of this country, one of the first requirements we should make for the next president is to demand a comprehensive health care plan that provides quality care to everyone.
- Jim Grinstead
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