Healthcare Reform...Dead or Alive?

The three basic problems that health care reform seek to solve are effectiveness, cost, and access to care. The belief is healthcare problems will remain the same as they were in 2009 and will most likely face the same forces that combined to defeat health-care reform in 1945 and 1994. Democrats are still trying to decide what to do: push forward, back down, or take a new approach to salvage healthcare reform, the centerpiece of their domestic agenda. Pelosi promised that Democrats will pass "something," yet Democratic leaders are admittedly slowing down and thinking about their options. Though President Obama urged Congress in his State of the Union address to "finish”. The choice they make will likely hinge on several things, including balancing what the White House wants against what Democratic leaders think they can get, interpreting what voters in Massachusetts were saying, and divining what, if anything, the outcome means for the November midterm elections. The loss of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat to Republican Scott Brown leaves Democrats with 59 votes, one shy of what they need to block a filibuster. That means the old plan of merging the bills passed by the House and Senate and then sending a new bill through both chambers is dead unless the Senate tries to vote on something before Brown is seated. But President Obama, along with several Senate Democrats, quickly ruled that out. "Shell-shocked" is the way Democrats kept describing their reaction to Scott Brown's election victory in Massachusetts. Hill aides sounded weary and uncertain. Gone was the hope that healthcare reform was close to clearing its last hurdle. Gone was the sense of inevitability that had sprung up around the effort. In its place were hastily arranged private meetings convened by Democratic leaders. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spent the day rotating among caucus members. They were assessing,re-evaluating, and doing damage control. President Obama, House and Senate Democratic aides insist that healthcare reform is not dead and say that it will move forward in some form. The task, they say, is to regroup, not to retreat. "I think what we've learned is that change is not easy," says a House Democratic aide. "Bringing about real change, sweeping change, is not a quick process. There are going to be people on both sides saying you haven't done enough or you've done too much." The challenge, the aide says, is finding the comfort zone of the American people. Is this the best we'll get from our elected reps, as the economy continues to fissure and the dreams and security of more and more of us buckle and break, and decent medical coverage becomes increasingly a matter of luxury or luck? Perhaps, things aren't bad enough for real change yet, or maybe the demand for it still remains a low priority in comparison to the lobbying pressures of Big Insurance and the prevailing free-market issues among establishment politicians. The for-profit health care guarantees that many people will not be able to get coverage. There's no escaping this. As a result, basic health care for all Americans -- however cost-effective and spiritually healthy it would be for the nation -- does not yet have the status of, for instance, gun ownership: It is not a right. Approximately 1,300 profit-making private insurance companies administer thousands of separate plans and waste about $400 billion a year on administrative costs, profiteering, high CEO compensation packages, and advertising. Health care providers spend another $210 billion on administrative costs, mostly to deal with insurance paperwork. As a result, the United States spends $7,129 per person on health care, almost double the amount spent by nearly any other industrialized country. Ultimately, 46 million Americans do not have any health insurance, and for millions more the coverage is inadequate but budget-breaking. And as a result, the U.S. ranks among the lowest of developed countries in both general health and life expectancy. Currently, healthcare reform has been placed on hold until further notice. The Democratic leaders’ goals are to regroup and find the comfort zone of the American people. The Democrats have insisted the healthcare reform will not be defeated and have vowed to pass something. Will the same forces that combined to defeat health-care reform in 1945 and 1994 defeat the current healthcare reform proposal? Is it now or never on healthcare reform for the American people? www.ihavenet.com › BUSINESS - Cached - Similar www.newsless.org/.../the-3-key-parts-of-news-stories-you-usually-dont-get/ - www.ihavenet.com › BUSINESS - Cached - Similar www.newsless.org/.../the-3-key-parts-of-news-stories-you-usually-dont-get/ -