A way forward on healthcare
Ok, so for some reason, I can’t get BlueMassGroup to work yet again, so I will start posting here again. I intend to keep blogging here, at least until I can figure out the problem with my BMG account, but maybe also after that as well.
So, Martha Coakley’s miserable loss is a setback for the Democratic agenda on healthcare, and many ideas have been proposed to move healthcare forward. Basically, Democrats have a clusterfuck of strategies for healthcare right now, and can’t figure out which one is best. There’s the easy way of passing the Senate bill, which is anathema to many, as it lacks a public option and has the horrific subsidies for Nebraska. Then, there’s the possibility of adding more to it with a “sidecar” to be passed with reconciliation. Then, there’s the possibility of passing everything with reconciliation, and just ignoring the Senate bill. All of these are quite bad options, with the best of them probably being the combined “sidecar” approach.
However, there is another way forward. This way will upset many, since it will not result in a public option, but it will still lead to meaningful reform that can pass and last. This option is simple: do whatever Olympia Snowe wants. This may seem ridiculous to many on the left, who do not want to trust their healthcare plan to a Republican, but it is a very reasonable plan. Unlike many Republicans, Olympia Snowe wants healthcare reform. She has actually proposed alternatives to the Democrats’ plan that will be actual reform, as opposed to the so-called “Republican Alternatives” that are mostly just joke plans to make the Republicans look less like obstructionists. Her alternatives are worth another look, as she could be the 60th vote for meaningful reform.
Olympia Snowe has proposed a plan with a trigger, which activates the public option in states where certain conditions are not met, a health insurance exchange, and various other things that are parts of real reform. Yes, it isn’t the public option. However, it is time to stop looking at the ends, and not the means. Does it get real results? Yes. It influences insurers to improve their practices, or else they end up getting forced to compete with a public option. In the presence of the trigger, market based reform will happen faster, as the sword of Damocles will be hanging over the insurers’ heads. They must either improve their practices, or they must compete with the inherently better public option. under such circumstances, we will either get reform from the insurers, or we will get a public option.
This plan has most of the necessary components of reform, and is probably one of the best possible bills we can get. Snowe is crucial to a Democratic agenda right now, so it is absolutely necessary that we start anew and pass a bill that has her support. This not only will get us health reform; it also will make us look more bipartisan, and will help us do better in the midterms, as the effects of supporting healthcare reform will hurt those up for reelection even more if we don’t pass a bill than if we do. We still have a road to 60, if we work at it, and compromise in the way that Washington has forgotten how to.
