President Barack Obama’s push for national health care law has created tremendous confusion and fear. He can try to blame the Republicans for that. He can try to blame whoever’s packing the infamous town hall meetings with angry hecklers. But he should recognize something: much of this confusion and fear stems from the Democrats’ own efforts.
They’re trying to do too much. They’re not always leveling with people about the real cost and impact of their plans. They are succumbing to their own ambitions.
They’re losing the confidence of their constituents.
Some of those constituents are genuinely worried about how their health coverage might change and whether they’ll be able to keep their doctors.
They’re suspicious about plans for a massive, new government insurance program, which some consider a federal takeover of health care.
They’re worried about how much all this will cost.
The pols are trying to do too much too fast. They’re reminding a lot of voters of those fast-talking salesmen on late night television, hawking Ginsu knives. Act now because supplies are limited!
As a result, many people have lost sight of the original, and worthy goal of reform: To provide assurance that everyone in the nation has access to affordable health care.
People know that this country’s health care system still delivers first-rate care. It isn’t irretrievably broken. It can be more efficient, less wasteful and mistake-prone.
Democrats, it’s time to start over. Chuck the incomprehensible bill that the House produced. Get the Senate to simplify. Focus on three basic reforms. Think of these as the essential building blocks for a more accessible and more cost-effective health care system in America:
*Require Americans to carry health care insurance. Americans must accept that health insurance is like auto coverage: It’s not optional. You have a responsibility to yourself, your family, your community and the rest of your fellow citizens to carry health insurance. Because when you don’t, when you get sick, we pay the bill. Those who genuinely can’t afford insurance should get some government help. This whole reform effort started as a way to cover 46 million uninsured people. Let’s do it.
*Guarantee that Americans can buy insurance in the private market even if they lose their jobs, or move, or have an existing health problem. The insurers have agreed to provide such a guarantee, as long as everyone is required to buy insurance. That’s a good deal. Requiring the healthy as well as the sick to sign up is the only way to make this work as essentially a market-funded, not a government-funded, system. Premiums paid by the healthy in effect subsidize those who need care. The healthy come to appreciate that when they get sick.
*Level the playing field on tax policy. People who are covered through their employers get a tax break. Those who buy insurance in the individual market should get the same tax break, which would give them a shot at affordable coverage. Phase out the favorable tax treatment for so-called Cadillac coverage.
Americans grow more skeptical by the day about the broad reforms Democrats are promoting. One big reason: People are wary of unintended consequences in a $2.5 trillion health care market.
The Democrats run the House and Senate and the White House, so they can probably shove a massive and misunderstood health-care bill into law. But they run the risk of creating outrage over a law the public doesn’t understand and doesn’t trust.
So start over and simply. The three building blocks we suggest are easy to explain and understand. And they would get the job done.
