Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic's health policy expert and one of the most trenchant observers of the intersection between policy and politics in Washington, has read through the summary of the 582-page draft of the House's Tricom health care bill. He likes it:
"...[I]f the House follows through with money to pay for this program--a big "if," yes--then this proposal seems eminently sensible, at least upon first inspection. And the politics may not be quite as difficult as they seem. Remember, many of the propositions that alienate special interests and conservatives happen to be pretty popular with the voters. Reform will not make it through the process in this pristine form, obviously. But a bill like this change the parameters of debate, improving the final compromise.
I've contacted about a half-dozen friendly liberal wonks in the last 90 minutes, since the draft became public. Everybody seemed pleased. (One actually said "Boffo!") It's possible that they are as desperate as I've been for encouraging news; maybe impressions will sour as a fuller picture of the House proposal emerges. But, for the moment, this seems like good news.
You guys in the media are unbelievable. Yesterday, we heard in numerous outlets about how health care reform was starting to look doomed. Today, the outlook is back to look promising. The media's need for drama has truly subsumed its duty of responsible reporting--you know, the kind that resists making predictions in a turbulent and fairly unpredictable environment?
At this point, I don't even bother reading the postings and articles about the likelihood of events and developments because I know they're likely to change by 180 degrees the next day. They serve no useful purpose.
Mark,
Great job with your blog/channel. Very informative. Thanks for keeping the rest of us in the loop as much as you do.
The current situation of health care today is making sure every American has access to high quality health care is one of the most important challenges of our time. The number of uninsured Americans is growing, premiums are skyrocketing, and more people are being denied coverage every day. A moral imperative by any measure, a better system is also essential to rebuilding our economy -- we want to make health insurance work for people and businesses, not just insurance and drug companies. For more information, visit this site: http://personalmoneystore.com/military-loans