The passing of Ted Kennedy has me thinking about a lot of things – bloodlines of greatness, tragic flaws, the modern meaning of liberalism and, of course, the issue of the day: healthcare.
Fixing a broken system at this scale has appropriately triggered a fierce national debate. And while I find myself tempted to tune it out altogether (full disclosure: I have amazing healthcare coverage provided by one of my jobs), I am still drawn to the part of the debate surrounding President Obama and what some believe to be his failure to adhere to the methodologies central to his party’s platform.
This perceived failure is where I am ever more glad that I cast my vote for President Obama and where I tell him to soldier on and make as many people as angry or confused as possible. What he promised to do (at least what I perceived he promised to do) was to finally extricate real American values and goals from the clutches of both parties to form a platform of good-for-all initiatives that can no longer afford to languish in limbo, held hostage by meaningless battles over fringe issues.
To use healthcare as an example – the “real” American value is a commitment to developing the best healthcare possible, with a reasonable and rational system in place to provide it and administrate it to our citizens, that can exist within our capitalist identity and market-based economy.
In my opinion, President Obama is ultimately playing a game of chicken with the GOP and the far left elements of his own party (whatever “far left” means, I’m finding this very hard to define these days). By being willing to withdraw the controversial “public option”, he is effectively pulling out of the debate the Republicans’ favored accusation toward any governmental solution to a large scale problem – “socialism”.
For years, the democrats, have trapped themselves into a weak argument on healthcare by using moral arguments and wonky explanations of complicated efficiencies of scale and multi-tiered program structures. By refusing to posture for his own party’s terminology, he is asking the Republicans to step forward and tell him, then, how exactly we are going to provide quality healthcare to all Americans.
President Obama is now essentially saying “Okay, fine, ‘socialized’ medicine’ is off the table. Now, if you could, please tell me how the kids dying of cancer will be able to afford their treatment. Tell me how the people being rejected by insurance companies for pre-existing conditions can afford their treatment. If it’s not the government, then who?”
And if he can hold out, he can finally expose that 1) they do not have an answer to this question and 2) their policy is based on what it is always based on: what is best for themselves and their lobbyists as individuals and entities and not what is best for the country as a whole.
It’s already starting to happen. According to this article in Slate, Republican senator, Tom Coburn (also a medical doctor), answered a constituent’s question about her husband’s brain injury and their struggle with affording his treatment with the following: “The idea that the government is a solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement.”
The article goes on to explain that the plan that Senator Coburn is supporting is virtually the same as President Obama’s and that his comments have been met with embarrassment and disbelief by doctors around the country.
President Obama is exposing both parties here. By appearing willing to ditch to the public option, he can’t be as easily defeated by Republicans with accusations that he is a “socialist” and a lover of “big government”. He can also expose his party’s own tendency to get lost in a debate on ideology instead of real details. Of course we have a moral responsibility to provide health care to the sick, but beyond that we still have to create a viable and sustainable system to provide care that doesn’t bankrupt our country or the insurance industry, which despite its proliferation of evils, is still the source of thousands of jobs and billions (zillions?) in corporate tax revenue. We all have to work together, like it or not.
I am not a health care expert. I have nothing but empathy for anyone who even attempts to wrap their brain around this incredibly complex problem. Perhaps one positive development to come from this heated debate will hopefully be for more people to engage themselves in a little bit of the wonky, boring stuff. Once you look at the facts, it gets a lot harder for the Republicans and the insurance companies to hide that there has been some really rotten stuff going on.
We, as a country, are definitely smart enough to develop a better system as long as we can move past our own buzzwords and blind party affiliations to get there.
Eat your veggies,
Saint B
