Town Halls, Emotions, and Doing Nothing

Well, we've certainly made it interesting again. The health care debate has moved out of the realm of practicality, and right to the emotional. Any discussion or debate about changing the health care system is inevitably going to have some emotional charge to it. But, as we've said in previous posts- the emotions are now driving the decision-making, instead of doing what is right.

So far, over $57 million has been spent on ads both for and against health care reform. As expected, and as good advertising is supposed to do, some of them went right to the gut. And, also as expected, some cross-the-line to achieve what they intend to achieve; to scare the public. The advertising buzz-words of "Death Panel", "Pulling the Plug on Grandma", and "Rationing" have hit the mark with the general public (whether true or not) creating the scenes we've seen at the Town Hall meetings. And, quite honestly, those defending the ideas have not done a very good job in defending them.

The Center for Responsive Politics indicates just 5 health-care related organizations dumped another $8 million into the lobbying effort in 2008 to influence (or nudge) the legislative process. In 2006, the combined spending for health care lobbyists was the largest of any of the industry segments spending almost $200 million. We're sure that's going to double at least for 2009.

The result- We have an angry public, a partisan country, and a health care system that continues to deteriorate financially.

We honestly don't know what is going to happen with reforming our health care system. Public support has deteriorated, the economic outlook (deficit) has not surprisingly deterioriated, and we have a partisan divide in this country that has grown bigger instead of smaller. As we've said in the past, Obama has lost control of the message and the process.

We're hearing from one side that reform may not happen at all. We're hearing from the other side that they may start to use the legacy of Senator Kennedy as the platform to revive the public support for health care reform. We'll know more when Congress returns next week. From what we've seen so far, it's not going to be pretty.

It's pretty obvious that the structure of the current legislation (HR 3200) is not where the country wants to go. But, as we said in our HR 3200 Cheat Sheet, the legislation does address most of the structural challenges facing the health care system today. We're hoping the Senate can come up with some bi-partisan compromise that makes sense and starts to address the challenges facing our system and ultimately the challenges facing our country.

We need a solution that maintains the individual liberties our country is founded on and still protects the economic foundation of the country for all. We're on the wrong trajectory today. Quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing "we have the best health care system in the world and should just leave it alone." We may have the best health care- but we absolutely do not have the best health care system. Doing nothing is really not an option- we've got to strike a balance.

We need to remember (and the real message should be): This isn't about where we are today- this is for our children and our grandchildren- they are the ones that will be really paying the bill.