Healthcare Reform: Some is Better than None

The president and democrats have claimed repeatedly that some healthcare reform is better than none, yet they are on track to virtually guarantee that nothing will change in our healthcare system for the next few years. If Obamacare fails, the president and democrats will have no one to blame but themselves. After many debates and presentations designed to garner support, recent polls clearly show that the vast majority of Americans believe Obamacare will substantially add to our national deficit and debt, severely hamper economic growth, and most importantly, it will not improve the affordability or quality of healthcare for the average American.

The president and democrats appear to have backed themselves into a corner with few good options for advancing their vision for a new healthcare system. They can quit now days short of a congressional vote, a la President Clinton in the 1990s, and risk a repeat of democrats losing big in this year’s elections as they did in 1994. More likely, the president and democrat party leaders will pressure congressional democrats to support Obamacare by using draconian and desperate carrot and stick measures. If Obamacare fails, history tells us that democrats will still lose big next fall. If Obamacare passes, democrats may redeem themselves by November’s election, assuming they can dramatically change the voting public's emphatically negative opinion of the plan and the unsavory process that made it law. That would be a long shot at best. Either way, if democrats lose big in 2010's election, republicans will do everything possible to disrupt implementation of Obamacare, even if it becomes law. If republicans establish a majority in congress you can bet they will do their best to repeal it altogether. Either way, Obamacare is unlikely to become a sustainable viable plan for our healthcare system.

Wouldn’t it be better for the president, the democrats, and the nation, for the president to make a deal with republicans, and capitalize on the 80 percent agreement the president claims both parties have for his plan? Wouldn’t it be better for the president to pass that 80 percent, or whatever percentage a bipartisan group can agree upon, and get a resounding bipartisan endorsement for healthcare reform? The president and democrats could claim victory for long awaited healthcare reform, and have bipartisan support that would ensure its future political viability. It may also restore some of the public's faith in government and potentially create enough good will to encourage bipartisan cooperation for tackling other major problems, such as our faltering economy, and burgeoning debt and deficit. That approach would also give the president an opportunity to call the republicans bluff. If republicans don’t cooperate with such a truly bipartisan approach, then they will prove to be the party of “no.” Also, the president claims that republican congressional majorities have always and will continue to do nothing to reform healthcare, so shouldn’t he use his majorities to get something worthwhile done now?

The president has made it easy for his republican critics by giving them nothing to lose by opposing Obamacare. For example, the president’s refusal to make tort reform part of his plan is the most egregious example of partisan democrat politics and makes Americans less sympathetic to democrat claims of republican political obstructionism. Furthermore, in an otherwise often abstruse debate about healthcare reform, tort reform makes intuitive sense as a way to trim the cost of a hopelessly cost bloated healthcare system.

The president’s all or nothing strategy is likely to yield nothing of enduring value to improve our healthcare system. Replacing comprehensive reform that has limited support with some incremental bipartisan changes would allow the president to succeed at real healthcare reform without potentially decimating our economy or the democrat party.