Everyday Americans get up in the morning and go to work. They provide their services to companies and corporations. In return they expect a living wage. They expect that their work entitles them to financial security and healthcare security. For thirty plus years both have been eroding.
When President Obama ran for president in 2008 he understood that the root of every American’s economic security laid with ensuring every American would have access to affordable health care. He knew a single-payer health care system was the most effective system. However he was pragmatic enough to settle for RomneyCare on Viagra to begin the codification of health care as a right.
The reason health care reform has always eluded presidents of the past is because of ideological rigidity. President Obama minimized his ideological rigidity to the consternation of his left flank to get an imperfect law that will ultimately get improved. A few months ago I wrote a piece that placed this into context:
The genius in achieving the passage of Obamacare is immediately evident after reading the transcribed talk titled “A Brief History: Universal Health Care Efforts in the US” given by Karen S. Palmer MPH, MS in San Francisco at the Spring, 1999 Physicians For A National Health Program (PNHP) meeting. The talk revealed the headwinds that have blown over every President attempting to pass some form of universal healthcare. Doctor associations, insurance industry, unions, and other groups have always created opposition in some combination that guaranteed failure. She described the reason for failure as follows.
Political naiveté on the part of the reformers in failing to deal with the interest group opposition, ideology, historical experience, and the overall political context all played a key role in shaping how these groups identified and expressed their interests.
In effect, the very compromises President Obama has been knocked for are the compromises that allowed the passage of the Affordable Care Act. It was a running start that will need modification. The president is cognizant of this fact and he stated that much in the State Of The Union Speech on January 25th, 2011.
Please read below the fold for more on this story.
How can politicians make Obamacare the winning message? It’s in the polls.
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