Within the next couple of weeks something is going to come out of Congress regarding health care reform. We still don’t know what it will look like, as most of this is now behind closed doors negotiating specific details to solidify the vote. We know this may be democracy at work but can’t believe our Founding Fathers would support the idea of passing a major piece of social and economic legislation to meet a deadline. The approach is simply wrong for our country.
Despite all of the numbers being thrown around by CBO and the others, we really have no idea of what the ultimate costs of this endeavor will be. Unless things changed behind the closed doors, we find it hard to reconcile how this approach will “change the cost curve” we are experiencing in health care today. We just don’t see it.
According to Gallup, Congressional approval remains at an all-time low. If this legislation passes and still includes the hefty price tag we think it does, American’s will be looking for results. They aren’t a patient lot right now. If citizens (especially the independent voters) don’t see some improvement in the health care numbers or results early in the year, many Democrats may be looking for consulting and speaking gigs after they are replaced in next year’s mid-term elections. From a political perspective, getting on board behind this legislation is a huge risk.
There has never been a public strong public mandate to pass legislation this year. There has been a strong public mandate to fix what we’ve got but we expect it to be done right.
Gallup’s November 30th poll indicated that currently 49% are against the legislation while 44% are for it. A recent ABC/Washington Post poll indicated that 53% feel we will pay more individually, 55% feel we will pay more nationally, and 50% feel the quality of care would be better if we just kept the way things are today. These numbers don’t resemble anything close to a mandate.
Senator Harry Reid said on Monday, “I’m confident that by next week we will be on our way toward final passage of a bill that saves lives, saves money, and saves Medicare.”
He’d better be right. If he’s wrong he’ll be doing something else this time next year. And, so will many others in his party.
Despite all of the numbers being thrown around by CBO and the others, we really have no idea of what the ultimate costs of this endeavor will be. Unless things changed behind the closed doors, we find it hard to reconcile how this approach will “change the cost curve” we are experiencing in health care today. We just don’t see it.
According to Gallup, Congressional approval remains at an all-time low. If this legislation passes and still includes the hefty price tag we think it does, American’s will be looking for results. They aren’t a patient lot right now. If citizens (especially the independent voters) don’t see some improvement in the health care numbers or results early in the year, many Democrats may be looking for consulting and speaking gigs after they are replaced in next year’s mid-term elections. From a political perspective, getting on board behind this legislation is a huge risk.
There has never been a public strong public mandate to pass legislation this year. There has been a strong public mandate to fix what we’ve got but we expect it to be done right.
Gallup’s November 30th poll indicated that currently 49% are against the legislation while 44% are for it. A recent ABC/Washington Post poll indicated that 53% feel we will pay more individually, 55% feel we will pay more nationally, and 50% feel the quality of care would be better if we just kept the way things are today. These numbers don’t resemble anything close to a mandate.
Senator Harry Reid said on Monday, “I’m confident that by next week we will be on our way toward final passage of a bill that saves lives, saves money, and saves Medicare.”
He’d better be right. If he’s wrong he’ll be doing something else this time next year. And, so will many others in his party.
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