Sunday night, the Senate had it's first cloture vote toward final passage of the new health care reform bill. There are still several votes to go, and it'll probably take a few more days, but it looks like nothing can stop the bill from passing now. For those of us who think the bill doesn't go nearly far enough toward reforming the current system, our only hope now rests with the committee that will reconcile the Senate and House versions of the bill.
But it does look like the Senate's probable passage of it's bill has increased support for that bill. On December 2-3, a CNN/Opinion Research poll showed the bill only had the support of 36% of the American people. CNN released a new poll yesterday that showed support for the bill had risen to 42%. That's a six point rise in popularity. I suspect it comes from progressives who have given up and decided something is better than nothing.
That still leaves 56% of the American people that are opposed to the Senate version of the bill for one reason or another. I guess the other 2% just don't care what happens -- they must have lots of money and great insurance. Otherwise, I don't see how they could not care.
That 56% who are opposed might make it look like the Republicans are right, and that people think the bill is too liberal (or socialist). But that is just not true. Only 40% think the bill is too liberal.
The other 16% of those opposed to the bill think just the opposite -- that the bill is not liberal enough. These are progressives, like myself, who were severely disappointed when the Republicans and blue dogs ripped the public insurance option out of the bill.
These progressives would have liked to go to a single-payer system of health insurance, but were willing to settle for creation of a public option to compete with private insurance and drive down costs for everyone. The loss of both single-payer and a public option signaled a failure for real reform.
If the public option cannot be revived in the bill's final form, it will be very hard for Democrats to re-energize that 16% of the population -- which they must do before the 2010 elections.
(NOTE -- the above chart shows health care spending as a percentage of GDP)
Be in no doubt ... we may complain in the UK about our national health system, we may know that it needs reform and be frustrated that this is not being done well, but there isn't a soul in this country - not even the most conservative - who would be happy to see it go.
ReplyDeleteI have never paid for a visit to my general practitioner, she never fails to offer me an appointment on the day that I request it and all medications are subsidised. All children receive free treatment and entirely free medication. The National Health Service is not prejudiced in favour of anyone - it's not efficient, it's not offered equally in different parts of the country, but it is equally inefficient for everyone - rich, poor, enabled, disabled - in a given locality. The existence of such a system prevents no-one from getting their own private healthcare insurance (it's helpful to the public purse that many do), but it ensures that not a single person falls through the cracks; they are held to the best of our current ability.
This is a defining example of the difference between freedom in the UK and freedom in the US. We are, undoubtedly, less free here as private citizens - and I do not seek to diminish and never sneer at the extraordinary quality of personal freedom available in the US to those strong enough to make the best of it. But we prize social responsibility above that, I think. It's messy, we argue about it, there will never be another golden age of state support to rival the postwar era, but I'm proud of it and thankful for it.