What Obama Means for Health Care Reform
Like millions (billions?) of people around the world, I watched President Barack Obama's inauguration speech yesterday, in awe of the hope and optimism that he engendered with a few simple words.
In his great speech, the President mentioned health care only twice, and then only in passing:
Our health care is too costly;
and
We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost.
These two statements alone might not be enough to make one hopeful that great change in health care is coming, but taken together with the President's stated goal of overhauling the way that our nation pays its doctor bills, they show that the Administration considers the matter to be of utmost importance.
Now, whether or not soon-to-be Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Daschle will be able to push through the President's health care agenda in Congress remains to be seen. Certainly, the Democratic Party having control of both houses creates a perfect storm of opportunity to finally get something done in the reform arena, but as we saw in the 90's (with Hillary Clinton's ill-fated attempt at health care overhaul), sometimes all the good intentions and political will are not enough to overcome the entrenched special interest in Washington. (That would be the pharma, hospital, and most importantly, insurance lobbies).
Will we see the change that we're promised? That remains to be seen. But we can at the very least be hopeful, which is a nice change from the previous fifteen years.
posted by KJ Wojciechowski at 12:20 PM
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