I'm saying that not because I have analyzed everything, but because it seems to be taking flak from both sides of the aisle. There's no Public Option, but co-ops are proposed as a competitive alternative to private insurance. If one believes the math, it doesn't create large deficits. Reaction from a Small Business Group has been somewhat positive.
So far, he has attracted no Republican support. This is unfortunate - this bill seems to meet at least some of their desires. I think it's an adequate starting point.
Here's some commentary from both sides.
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Huffington Post
Open Left
New York Times
In my opinion, Health Care Reform cannot be handled in one giant leap forward, in some sort of Washington waterfall software development model. Let's get some decent bill in place. In several years, revisit it. This is going to be incremental.
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Hi,
To point out the obvious, US politics changes unpredictably {and sometimes violently}. The people pushing for the public option now have two reasonable points:
a) There needs to be competition for the the insurance oligopoly. Costs for insurance have risen spectacularly, some of the people who most need coverage cannot get it, etc. At the same time, insurance industry profits have also risen spectacularly. This is the classic pattern of an organized oligopoly, and unless we do something to disturb it costs will continue to rise and insurance companies will continue to tell people who get sick that they are not covered.
b) It's not clear that five to seven years from now we Democrats will be as strong as we are now. In 2002 Bush and the Republicans looked invincible, books were being published about how to institutionalize Republican political dominance, etc. Things looked a bit different in November 2008. Well, who knows what it look like for the Democrats in 2012? If the war in Afghanistan does not work out well, China decides it doesn't want to finance US recovery, a war between India and China happens, etc, the Obama administration as a whole could start to look like a failure.
So sorry, it seems wise to treat this as class warfare and attack while Democrats like me have the edge. After all, the version 1.0 - version 2.0 etc model of the computer industry assumes everyone has a common aim {fewer bugs and more capable software}. It is very questionable to me that the people who are rich enough to buy whatever health care they need, and I, are really working together toward a common aim.
Ray,
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