Opinion Pieces Discuss Efforts, Prospects for Health Care Overhaul Legislation
Summaries of several recent opinion pieces that addressed efforts to pass health care reform legislation appear below.
- John Harwood, New York Times: "Republicans hope that the combination" of former Clinton administration officials and President-elect Barack "Obama's pledge of bipartisanship comity foreshadow centrist compromise" on health care and other "national problems that have long appeared intractable," Harwood, co-author of "Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power," writes in a Times opinion piece. In "his health care proposal, to take one notable example, Mr. Obama has opened the door to a cross-party conversation by omitting a government mandate for universal coverage," Harwood writes, adding, "That earned him attacks" during the Democratic presidential primaries but "avoids one ideological poison pill that Republicans would otherwise target" (Harwood, New York Times, 11/23).
- Gov. Phil Bredesen (D-Tenn.), Wall Street Journal: "We need a national health insurance solution, but isn't it sensible in the meantime to make sure everyone has a basic health plan before we give a few more people a perfect but expensive one?" Bredesen writes in a Journal opinion piece. He writes that in 2006 Tennessee established CoverTN to provide health insurance to residents who are self-employed or whose employers do not offer coverage. According to Bredesen, CoverTN "is not free health care," but a "limited plan with shared costs." CoverTN charges low premiums and provides limited benefits, such as coverage for physician visits, medications and short hospital stays, Bredesen writes, adding, "This makes medical sense" because "access to a doctor and a drugstore when you first have a problem can avoid a lot of cost and heartache later." He states, "While we work to build a better system, wouldn't it also be responsible to find a way to get something ... into the hands of the more than 46 million uninsured Americans who don't share our good fortune?" (Bredesen, Wall Street Journal, 11/22).
- David Broder, Washington Post: "Things are looking up for substantive reform of America's troubled health care system," as "developments at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue last week ... pointed up both the urgency of the problem and the prospects for seeing significant action," Post columnist Broder writes. The reported selection of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as HHS secretary "signaled that Obama is serious about his campaign promise" to make health care reform a "first-term priority," Broder writes, adding, "Daschle can be of great help to Obama in achieving the goal" and "has made his own in-depth study of health care issues and brings a genuine passion to the subject." According to Broder, "There are positive signs within the Senate as well." Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) recently released a health care reform proposal, and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) "quickly asserted his right to be at the center of action," Broder writes. He adds, "A fast start is important because it takes untold hours to work through all the complex issues involved in comprehensive health care" (Broder, Washington Post, 11/23).
