|
Obama
Delivers ‘Waterloo’ to Health Reform Opponents
BY
ERNEST COREA (IDN)
WASHINGTON
DC (IDN) – Draft by draft, discussion by discussion, arm-twist by
arm-twist, inch by inch, step by step, vote by vote, health care reform
in the U.S. twice crossed the finish line that sceptics said it would
never reach.
On Tuesday, March 23, 2010 President Barack Obama signed the “Patient
Protection and Health Care Bill” into law. The signing ceremony at the
White House was momentous and emotional, and it was fitting that the
Kennedy family was well represented. Health care was a signature theme
for Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy, and the adoption of reform enriches
his legacy.
A week later, Obama signed the “Health Care Reconciliation and
Education Bill” into law, at the Northern Virginia Community College
(NOVA), where Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, is a
professor.
Introducing Obama to an enthusiastic crowd, Biden said: "By 2020 we
want America once again to have the highest proportion of college
graduates in the world."
"Thank you for that outstanding introduction -- and for putting up
with Joe," Obama responded.
The second piece of legislation reconciled differences between the
versions adopted in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The
“education” part of the legislation took back some $68 billion from
banks that acted as “middlemen” for government-funded student loans.
The government will now manage these loans direct, strengthening and
streamlining the process.
With that, the deal was done. The U.S. finally joined other
industrialized nations, and many developing countries, in seeking to
ensure that affordable, effective health care is a right of the many and
not a privilege of a few.
Even Fidel Castro, writing in his internationally published column,
could not help but acknowledge that for Obama the task of pushing health
care reform through the U.S. legislative process was “a significant
battle, and a success of his administration.”
GRUELLING
Societies may be judged by how they care for the sick and the suffering,
the weak and the vulnerable. Obama views health care reform from this
perspective.
He had reminded all of America, Kennedy pointed out in a death bed
letter to the president, “that what we face is above all a moral
issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental
principles of social justice and the character of our country.”
Many laboured hard and long along a gruelling “obstacle course” to
reach the finish line. Their tenacity strengthened the resolve of the
wavering.
At the White House event, Obama mentioned some of those who had worked
hardest to sustain the cause of reform: the indomitable Nancy Pelosi,
the first woman Speaker of the House and a powerful liberal; Senator
Harry Reid, the soft-spoken and sometimes under-estimated Majority
Leader of the Senate; Congressman John Dingell, Dean of the House of
Representatives, who has promoted health care reform throughout his
career as did his father; Secretary of Health and Human Services
Kathleen Sebelius, a former Governor of Kansas; and Nancy-Ann DeParle,
Director of the White House Office of Health Care Reform, who was a
Rhodes Scholar at Baliol College, Oxford.
TRIUMPH
Most of all, however, it was a moment of triumph for “we the
people.” So, Obama said, he was signing this reform bill into law:
- “on behalf of my mother, who argued with insurance companies even as
she battled cancer in her final days,
- “for Ryan Smith, who's here today. He runs a small business with
five employees. He's trying to do the right thing, paying half the cost
of coverage for his workers. This bill will help him afford that
coverage,
- “for 11-year-old Marcelas Owens, who's also here (by Obama’s
side). Marcelas lost his mum to an illness, and she didn't have
insurance and couldn't afford the care that she needed. So in her
memory, he has told her story across America so that no other children
have to go through what his family experienced,
- “for Natoma Canfield. Natoma who had to give up her health coverage
after her rates were jacked up by more than 40 percent. She was
terrified that an illness would mean she'd lose the house that her
parents built. So she gave up her insurance, and now she's lying in a
hospital bed as we speak, faced with just such an illness, praying that
she can somehow afford to get well without insurance.”
And, with his pen poised for action – the first of 22 used at the
signing ceremony -- he said that the Bill he was about to sign would
“set in motion reforms that generations of Americans have fought for
and marched for and hungered to see…..”
EARLY BENEFITS
Implementation of the new health care laws will be phased in – a
process that will be concluded by 2019.
A White House summary points out, however, that many early benefits will
be available in 2010 and more will do so in 2011.
Beginning this year, for instance:
- children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied health
insurance coverage.
- children will be permitted to remain on their parents' insurance
policy up until their 26th birthday,
- insurance companies will be banned from dropping people from coverage
when they get sick, and from implementing lifetime caps on coverage.
- adults who are uninsured because of pre-existing conditions will have
access to affordable insurance through a temporary subsidized pool.
- an independent commission will be established to advise on how best to
build the health care workforce and increase the number of nurses,
doctors and other professionals to meet the country's needs. (Going
forward, funding of $1.5 billion will support the next generation of
doctors, nurses and other primary care practitioners -- on top of a $500
million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.)
- a new, independent appeals process will ensure that consumers in new
private plans have access to an effective process to appeal decisions
made by their insurer.
ASSISTANCE
In addition:
- discrimination based on salary will be outlawed. New group health
plans will be prohibited from establishing any eligibility rules for
health care coverage that discriminates in favour of higher-wage
employees.
- funding will be provided to help states establish offices of health
insurance consumer assistance which will help individuals to file
complaints or appeals against insurance companies.
- small businesses that choose to offer coverage will begin to receive
tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums to help make employee
coverage more affordable.
- new private plans will be required to provide free preventive care: no
co-payments or deductibles. (From Jan. 2011, Medicare will do the
same.).
- help will be provided for early retirees (those below the age of 65,
when they become eligible for state-supported Medicare) by a temporary
re-insurance program to help offset the costs of expensive premiums for
employers and retirees age 55-64.
- action will be taken to close the Medicare Part D 'doughnut hole' (a
gap in prescription coverage) by providing a $250 rebate to Medicare
beneficiaries who hit this gap. The amount of the rebate will increase
next year.
Amazed, that all this and more could now be part of the U.S. health care
system? What is truly amazing is that “we the people” were denied
these benefits and services up to now.
FORMIDABLE
Although more remains to be done, what has been accomplished is
remarkable, given the formidable odds against which supporters of reform
struggled.
Special interest groups in the corporate sector unleashed a frenzied
lobbying campaign against reform from the moment it became an action
item on the Obama Administration’s agenda. They are reported to have
spent millions on these campaigns, deploying an average of 6 lobbyists
per targeted member of Congress.
The purpose of this effort was to kill the draft legislation at an early
stage or, if that was not possible, have its provisions diluted to the
point at which they became meaningless.
The political campaign against reform was “redolent with deceit,”
said a Congressman.
The lies should have been dismissed out of hand because they failed the
basic test of disinformation: that it should be credible and verifiable.
Not a single anti-reformist moved an amendment in the House or Senate to
expunge what they said was objectionable in the draft legislation. How
could they? What does not exist cannot be eliminated.
POLITICS
In a televised interview, Obama said that the legislation was "a
critical first step in making a health-care system that works for all
Americans." He explained: "It's not going to be the only
thing. We're still going to have adjustments to further reduce
costs."
Others will attack the legislation. From the left, critics will claim
that it does not go far enough. From the right, the complaints will
continue that socialism, communism, and nazism, have taken over American
health care.
In nut country, the easily agitated could wonder how to interpret former
Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin’s advice that they should “regroup and
reload.”
Then, as these days of spring give way to summer, and the fall,
electoral politics will dominate, and health-care reform will be woven
into campaign rhetoric.
Political attitudes towards Obama’s health-care plans were articulated
early on by John DeMint, a senator from South Carolina. He let slip his
view that “if we’re able to stop Obama on this (i.e. health care),
then it will be his Waterloo – it will break him.”
With reform law out of Congressional debate and on the statute books,
David Frum, a former speech writer for President George W. Bush, picked
up from where DeMint left off. “…It’s Waterloo all right.” wrote
Frum. “Ours.”
[Source:
IDN-InDepthNews
| Analysis That Matters]
_____________
The
writer has
served as Sri Lanka's ambassador to Canada, Cuba, Mexico, and the USA.
He was Chairman of the Commonwealth's Select Committee on the media and
development.
|
