Making it Real Simple

So I had a chat today with my Dad. Dad's 1) a smart guy 2) reasonably informed and 3) favours health care reform.

So I was surprised to hear him say that he was glad that the current health care reform proposals haven't gone through. His perception was that there had been too much back room dealing, to many negotiations, to many compromises. Now bear in mind, Dad's a natural New England Republican in many ways - so it wasn't that he wanted something more radical, he's uncomfortable with government expenditure generally but recognises that health care is a problem that needs to be fixed. In many ways he's the EXACT constituency this bill was designed to appeal to.

So what's the problem? Essentially, he's been turned off by the process. No one has sold this bill to him, and a lot of folks have been talking it down. He's been hearing about the compromises with Ben Nelson, and months of wrangling and has come to the conclusion the whole thing hasn't been well considered or thought through.

So here's my message to my Dad and the millions and millions of Americans just like him: I hear you. The process sucked. It did.

But you are presented now with a simple choice. We pass this bill, which will cover more than 30 million Americans more are currently covered, will REDUCE the deficit, strongly regulate the insurance companies, and provide security to every man woman and child that they will always be able to get health insurance.

Or we do not pass it, and bankrupt Medicare within a generation, continue to pay more than twice as much for health care than any other nation on earth (without being any healthier), and still leave abotu 46 Million Americans without health insurance.

This is the bill we can pass, and it will make life in America better. Or, we can let it die and be worse off.

Everything else is... window dressing.