Joe Klein: Is This Health Care's Moment?
[ Journalist and columnist, current affairs contributor at Time.]
Economic crises come and go, but entitlements are forever. The Great Depression eventually dissipated, but Franklin Roosevelt's crown jewel — the Social Security system — is still with us. And so it will be with the Obama Administration. The early headlines have been all about the President's efforts to repair the financial system and jump-start the economy. If he succeeds, he probably will be re-elected. But Barack Obama's place in history will be determined by the long-term structural changes he initiates, and his most important legacy battle is just beginning as Congress tackles the holy grail of modern liberalism, a universal health-care system.
The President has been clever about this. He hasn't made it the centerpiece of his Administration — and a fat target for his opponents — as Bill Clinton did. He hasn't proposed a specific plan, allowing, instead, a proposal to percolate through the Congress. "Everything about this process seems the polar opposite of 15 years ago," says John Rother of AARP. "The Administration seems determined not to make the same mistakes as Clinton did." (See the five truths about health care in America.)
Indeed, Democrats have a history of strategic idiocy when it comes to health care. Nearly 40 years ago, Richard Nixon proposed a universal system in which employers would be required to pay for their employees' coverage, but Democrats blocked it because they favored a government-run single-payer system. Twenty years later, Bill and Hillary Clinton proposed a system similar to Nixon's — but failed to bring aboard moderate Republicans, who favored a universal system based on requiring individuals rather than employers to participate. In the 2008 campaign, Obama and Hillary Clinton proposed plans that looked very much like the 1993 Republican scheme — do you detect a pattern here? — and the congressional debate, which will take place this summer, begins there.
This time, with significant Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, there is real optimism that a universal plan will be passed and enacted. But Clinton also had Democratic majorities — and strong public approval, at first. This time, because of the rules agreed on in the arcane budget process, Democrats will need only a simple majority vote in the Senate. But the process could run into the same two roadblocks that caused universal health insurance to fail in the past: the specter of "socialized medicine" and the fear that the cost of the program will, like that of other entitlements, spiral out of control. ...
Read entire article at Time Magazine
Economic crises come and go, but entitlements are forever. The Great Depression eventually dissipated, but Franklin Roosevelt's crown jewel — the Social Security system — is still with us. And so it will be with the Obama Administration. The early headlines have been all about the President's efforts to repair the financial system and jump-start the economy. If he succeeds, he probably will be re-elected. But Barack Obama's place in history will be determined by the long-term structural changes he initiates, and his most important legacy battle is just beginning as Congress tackles the holy grail of modern liberalism, a universal health-care system.
The President has been clever about this. He hasn't made it the centerpiece of his Administration — and a fat target for his opponents — as Bill Clinton did. He hasn't proposed a specific plan, allowing, instead, a proposal to percolate through the Congress. "Everything about this process seems the polar opposite of 15 years ago," says John Rother of AARP. "The Administration seems determined not to make the same mistakes as Clinton did." (See the five truths about health care in America.)
Indeed, Democrats have a history of strategic idiocy when it comes to health care. Nearly 40 years ago, Richard Nixon proposed a universal system in which employers would be required to pay for their employees' coverage, but Democrats blocked it because they favored a government-run single-payer system. Twenty years later, Bill and Hillary Clinton proposed a system similar to Nixon's — but failed to bring aboard moderate Republicans, who favored a universal system based on requiring individuals rather than employers to participate. In the 2008 campaign, Obama and Hillary Clinton proposed plans that looked very much like the 1993 Republican scheme — do you detect a pattern here? — and the congressional debate, which will take place this summer, begins there.
This time, with significant Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, there is real optimism that a universal plan will be passed and enacted. But Clinton also had Democratic majorities — and strong public approval, at first. This time, because of the rules agreed on in the arcane budget process, Democrats will need only a simple majority vote in the Senate. But the process could run into the same two roadblocks that caused universal health insurance to fail in the past: the specter of "socialized medicine" and the fear that the cost of the program will, like that of other entitlements, spiral out of control. ...