Passing weak health care reform is not worth the effort

July 4, 4:05 PMPolitical Buzz ExaminerRyan Witt

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 Health care reform may be the most important legislative item the Obama administration deals with in his presidency.  As the survey on the right shows and overwhelming number of Americans think health care reform is important.  If President Obama fails to pass through significant legislation which starts to cure the problems of the health care system it could come back to haunt him in the 2012 election.

According to a Washington Post report in order to get health care reform through Congress President Obama is pressuring liberal advocacy groups to go easy on democratic representatives.  A number of group like moveon.org have been openly critical of some democratic leaders such as Diane Feinstein of California.  The groups are worried that democratic representatives are compromising too much in the face of republican opposition and also not enthusiastically supporting true health care reform.  President Obama fears that a party divided against itself will not be able to stand up and pass through health care reform legislation.

While President Obama certainly should try to keep democrats unified behind health care reform the concern of some liberal groups must be addressed.  The proposals now being considered are increasingly watered down and do not amount to a promise to insure every American.  The Obama administration and democratic leaders seem to be backing off language referring to health care as a right. Then presidential candidate Clinton drew large praise in her speeches when she talked about a "right" of every American to have health insurance and the health care debate should be centered around such an idea.

Health care reform must be passed but what kind of "change" have we really accomplished if we simply extend the old policies or provide subsidies for health care insurance companies?  While democrats hold a significant numerical advantage in the House and Senate they must seize the moment by passing through real reform and not simply a modification of the old health care system.  After this legislation is passed it may be another decade or two before any president has another change to pass health care reform.  If what comes out of this Congress turns out to be a watered down version of reform Americans will suffer the consequences for a long time in the future.  Democrats should be united but not at a cost of passing real reform and insuring every American.