Pass the Damn Bill!

Over the last year we have seen an intense and contentious debate on healthcare reform like no other debate in modern history. We have seen every conceivable argument both for and against reform from scuttling the current system in favor of a single-payer system (Medicare for All) to shouts of death panels and a government takeover of healthcare. And after all the political posturing and back and forth banter I have come to the only rational conclusion possible. As flawed as this current healthcare reform bill is, it is still the best effort to date to bring about change to a broken system, and on the whole it should be passed by the House and signed into law by the President.

Yes I know full well that many of the bill’s provisions do not kick in for up to four years, meaning many millions of people will still have to wait to receive the proper care they so desperately need; and yes I realize that with healthcare now mandated by law and enforceable through punitive measures, many of these people will be compelled to purchase insurance from the very same industry that treated them so despicably in the first place – a windfall for an industry that heavily lobbied against reform; and yes after all the hoopla over the numbers, there will still be more than fifteen million Americans without coverage after this bill gets signed into law.

Even with all that and more, this bill should still pass and for two reasons and two reasons only.

1. The mid-term elections are fast approaching. Democrats will almost certainly suffer losses; to what extent no one knows for sure. But whether they lose control of both Houses of Congress, one chamber, or just have their majority cut down in size, this much is certain: next year’s Congress will have no stomach or inclination to discuss, let alone vote, on healthcare reform. Whether anyone cares to admit it or not, this ship is leaving in 2010. The only decision is whether or not this bill makes it on board. An Opportunity like this – flawed as it is – comes once in a lifetime. Clinton’s big mistake was that he wanted his bill his way. Congress punted and the rest is history. Critics who contend that the GOP will make healthcare reform a major issue in the fall campaign are missing the point. No matter what the Democrats do, the GOP will come after them, big time. So long as you’re going to get roasted, you might as well be roasted for doing something.

2. The fear by many progressives that passing this bill means it is etched in stone is absurd. If history has shown us anything it is that politics, like human beings, evolves over time. Social Security and Medicare were far more cumbersome and far-reaching, and yet today’s programs bear little resemblance to what they looked like at their inception. There will be time to correct the flaws in this bill, either through reconciliation or later amendments to it. The point is to start somewhere. Paul Krugman has said that the bill “wouldn’t transform our health care system; in fact, Americans whose jobs come with health coverage would see little effect. But it would make a huge difference to the less fortunate among us, even as it would do more to control costs than anything we’ve done before.” He’s right.

The tragic flaw staring back at all of us is that in this current political climate it was naïve of us to believe we would ever get the bill we wanted. Yes, Barack Obama badly mismanaged this process; yes the wingnuts on the Right should be ashamed of themselves for the fear-mongering they sponsored over what basically amounts to a Massachusetts type of reform bill, but if in our zeal to get what we think is best, we end up killing this bill, then woe to us. It will not be the Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs who we will have to thank; it will be our own obstinance.

If Dennis Kucinich could be swayed to vote yes on this bill then maybe it is time we all came to our senses and realize what most moderates and pragmatists have learned all too well and what the Rolling Stones once sang in a famous song: “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”

This nation desperately needs healthcare reform, and it has needed it for several decades. The time for posturing and pandering to our basic fears and petty desires is over. If we miss this opportunity, the next one might not come for years, if at all.

Pass the damn bill!