Healthcare Again
1 The healthcare debate is now in full swing. Most commentators believe that some bill will be passed before Christmas; however, the opponents are getting more strident and vociferous each week.
It is now almost certain that very few – if any – Republicans in Congress will support the President’s bill. And the so-called Blue Dog or conservative Democrats are also setting
limits on what they will vote for. The public option, which would involve the Federal Government offering a plan that would compete with the private insurance companies, is effectively off the table. Eventhough it is the preferred solution of most Democrats, including the President, it would not have the required votes in the Senate and might also be in trouble in the House of Representatives.
The unseemly outburst by South Carolina Republican, Joe Wilson, while the President was addressing both houses of Congress on this issue, drew strong criticism from former President Carter. Mr. Wilson shouted that the President was lying when he stated that people who are illegally in the country would not be covered in any Democratic legislation. Mr. Carter accused Wilson of racism, stressing that such a petulant and demeaning outburst would not have happened if the president was white.
President Clinton was asked if he agreed with his predecessor from Georgia about Wilson’s outburst. He replied that while he and Carter, both Southern governors before moving to the White House, shared an acute sensitivity to all kinds of racism, he didn’t think it was helpful to talk in these terms in the Healthcare debate because any Democratic president would face similar ferocious opposition in this area.
The great social programs of the last seventy years, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, all elicited fierce opposition from conservatives. Roosevelt was regularly called a communist and LBJ, from the heart of Texas, was deemed equally suspect. President Kennedy and his brother, Robert, were both committed to serious legislation to improve the civil rights of Black people. The right-wing hatred that this generated contributed to the dark ethos that led to their untimely deaths.
It is difficult to understand this harsh negativity by conservatives to almost any social change that benefits poor or working families. In the healthcare debate, President Obama is daily accused of socialism – an absolute no-no in American politics - and of promoting a program that will not only cover illegals but will also end the lives of vulnerable old people. Any lie will do!
Bill Clinton advised him to disregard the outrageous allegations and focus on the absolute need for radical reform. We pay away more per capita in the United States for our healthcare than any other Western country, and still 20% of our population, mostly working families, have no coverage. America has the highest infant mortality and among the lowest longevity rates in the West. People are frequently refused coverage or proper treatment by insurance companies if the cost is deemed too much. Companies in the United States are at a serious competitive disadvantage against their counterparts in other Western countries, where medical coverage is the responsibility of the national governments. The case for major change is overwhelming.
Republicans have a major credibility problem when they attack Democratic proposals in this area. They had a clear majority in both houses for six of the eight years that the last President Bush was in the White House. During that time, the cost of healthcare premiums almost doubled. Yet, they did nothing to alleviate the situation. Their constant complaints that the universal coverage that the Democrats are advocating will add to the already-high deficit also only reminds people that it was in their time, before President Obama was elected, that the national debt ballooned out of control.
President Clinton correctly advised his successor that he should forget about bipartisanship at this stage. The differences between the two parties on this issue have existed for most of a century. He should call on his own party to deliver the votes for the needed radical change. If they fail, it will greatly weaken the Democrats in the next congressional election and will seriously undercut the Obama presidency. When push comes to shove in the Fall votes, even the Blue Dogs will shy away from that.
