Health Care Reform Update: This Thing Is Going To Work (Or, Woot!)
By Alta Price, M.D.I just heard on the tee vee Harry Reid’s announcement that the health care reform bill in the Senate will include a public plan option, even if it is one with a state level opt out. I felt like titling this post “Woot!” – a term I first learned blogging at DeanforAmerica.com (and still use when Beryllos, my level 80 Night Elf Hunter in World of Warcraft (WoW) wins a major victory). But I decided I probably had to say a little more than woot! So here is a nice article by Paul Krugman, “After Reform Passes”. He starts out this way:
There’s a part of me that can’t believe I’m asking that question. After all, serious health reform has long seemed like an impossible dream. And it could yet go all wrong.
But the teabaggers have come and gone, as have the cries of “death panels” and the demonstrations by Medicare recipients demanding that the government stay out of health care. And reform is still on track. Right now it looks highly likely that Congress will, indeed, send a health care bill to the president’s desk. Then what?
I agree with Krugman – I can’t believe what we have accomplished. And to get a Senate bill including the public option, passing with 60 votes no less, going into conference committee with the House is icing on the cake. Thanks for making all those phone calls last week, everyone! Please give yourself a pat on the back, or join me in a joyous “woot!”
We progressives just love to worry, so now we are getting concerned about what happens after the bill passes. Krugman draws upon the Massachusetts experience with health care reform to assure us that our national level bill will indeed help people and be popular. This is not to say there won’t be problems, or that we can just play WoW once the bill passes. We are going to have to stay engaged at the state level until the reforms are fully implemented and will still have work to do on improving access, lowering costs, and fixing the myriads of problems we will still have in our health care system. But this bill we have worked so hard to pass brings us much closer to our goal of quality affordable health care for all. As Krugman says at the end of his column:
Price is a physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of
the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America,
Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health
care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for the
Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum). Watch for Dr. Price's Health Care Reform Update every Tuesday here on Blog for Iowa. E-Mail Alta Price
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