TW: The one benefit of a crisis as serious as the current is that an environment for action is created. Obama will have a plethora of issues demanding his attention. As Carney points out in his piece, given the importance of health care as an economic stimulative perhaps the prospects for reform will actually go up amidst the carnage of the crisis.
From Jay Carney at Time:
"Three key developments over the past 15 years have made this moment possible. First, the number of uninsured Americans now tops 45 million. Meanwhile, all the proposals under serious consideration — starting with Obama's — would allow Americans to keep their current insurance coverage if they're happy with it. The specter of the feds ordering everyone into a mandatory government-managed plan is fading away. Most important, the cost of health insurance to both the employers who provide it and the employees who pay premiums has continued to soar. Because of that, companies of all sizes — from corporate behemoths to corner stores — have switched sides on the issue of comprehensive reform. Having fought to defeat Clinton's plan in 1993, they are now some of reform's loudest advocates. "This is the No. 1 priority for small businesses," says Todd Stottlemyer, president of the National Federation of Independent Business. "We see it as a matter of national economic security."
Even the weak economy may be an impetus to reform. An expected spike in unemployment will increase the rolls of the uninsured, driving more of them into emergency rooms and boosting premiums on the insured. Struggling companies may be forced to cut or kill their employee coverage just to survive. And while the cost of Obama's reform is high — an estimated $75 billion a year — a big price tag hasn't kept Congress from raiding the Treasury to fix the economy's many other ills..."
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1860289_1860561_1860651,00.html
No comments:
Post a Comment