Health Care Reform -- My Comment on Obama's Op-Ed

Our greatest presidential writer since Jefferson, Obama has penned an Op-Ed for the NY Times on Health Care Reform.  You can read Obama's piece here.  I can't say he's really at the top of his form here, but it's probably because the article was written by a team of speech-writers.  Here are my comments:

"1. The President is going to pass some kind of Health Reform Bill this fall because he's got the numbers. The final bill will be a classic political sausage, which is better than nothing.

2. Liberals will be disappointed because the reform won't go far enough, conservatives will be furious that it went too far.

3. This Bill will only be the beginning of Health Care Reform, not the end. The health care sector will in the future receive the continual scrutiny of the Congress, the Executive Branch, the Press, and the citizenry who make use of our new medical system. There will be a need for continual updating, refining, revision, etc. There will be many opportunities to fix mistakes, and there will doubtless be many mistakes to fix. There will be Republican Presidents and Congresses in the future, and this new health care system will have to be robust enough to survive the review of such conservative administrations.

4. The \"Town Hall Brouhaha\" is a good example of \"political irrationality,\" the fundamental structural flaw of our republic. Since our government is based on the perpetual conflict between left and right, all innovations, whether coming from the left or the right, will be opposed by about half the voting public. Liberals are correct that conservative protests at the Town Hall meetings are irrational; but they are incorrect to think that liberals are any different when faced with likely government actions which they oppose.

5. The most important principle missing from the President's proposal is citizen oversight and involvement. As with all other massive government initiatives, citizens rightly fear government inefficiency and corruption. Regulators are not the answer because they are bought off by lobbyists. The right approach is to involve \"citizen juries\" -- like grand juries but with an administrative oversight capacity. This concept was developed partially in the U.S. but has already been put into use by Gordon Brown in the U.K. and is supported by Segolene Royal in France."

To comment, click on the Comment button below.  The author will  respond to comments on topic.

Comments

[Beatriz]

Tienes mucha razon en tus declaraciones. Habra mucho mas que hacer por parte de la ciudadania, es decir que es necesario que se involucren y no permitan o dejen toda la responsabilidad al gobierno. Creo que si es factible, pero se necesita alzar la voz y proponer voluntariamente opciones viables para que la reforma se lleve a cabo y que todos tengan derecho a los servicios medicos cuando estos sean necesarios, sin discriminacion alguna. Amen.

[Mini Cooper]

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Our greatest presidential writer since Jefferson, Obama has penned an Op-Ed for the NY Times on Health Care Reform.

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You can read Obama's piece here.

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Im voting for this. It is for us anyway.