Word: reform
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That reason is our out-of-control, highest-in-the-world, wiggety-wiggety-wack health-care costs. They're gobbling one-sixth of our economy, and without reform they'll devour one-third of our economy by 2040; the average family's annual premiums are on track to exceed $45,000 in 2008 dollars. They're already destroying businesses small and gigantic; unaffordable health-care liabilities are one of the main reasons GM and Chrysler went bust. And since half of all health care is paid for with tax dollars, these exploding costs are a fiscal, as well...
...other arguments for reform are perfectly good ones. It's a disgrace that 46 million Americans have no coverage. It's an outrage that insurance companies get away with the shenanigans they pull to deny claims when their enrollees get sick. It's true that real reform would enhance the economic security of working Americans. But let's face it: there are lots of ways to try to enhance the economic security of working Americans. You do health care first because the status quo is unsustainable. The most pressing health-care crisis is that we're spending way more than...
...they tend to drown each other out, especially now that the Administration is spending most of its time batting down wild rumors about death panels, enemies lists, socialized medicine and government takeovers of bank accounts. And only one of those reasons really explains why Obama has made health-care reform - or health-insurance reform, as he's now calling it - his overwhelming priority at a time when the economy still stinks and fossil fuels are still destroying the planet. (See 10 players in health-care reform...
...rein in the debt. Maybe it wouldn't be such terrible politics for Obama to stake out a position as the voice of fiscal responsibility in the face of fiscal catastrophe; it would certainly call the bluff of Blue Dog Democrats who say they're worried about health reform because they're worried about the national debt. It's not easy to build support for immediate action to avert a future emergency, but Obama showed it could be done with the stimulus, although that emergency did feel a bit more imminent. (See the most common hospital mishaps...
...Obama political team has concluded that cost inflation is mostly a Beltway issue, that August recess requires reform to be marketed in more personal terms: What does it mean for you? It would be nice if Obama stopped limiting his answer to that question to consumer protections against rapacious insurers. It could be: Your premiums won't double every decade, your economy won't sink and your government won't go broke. Then again, David Axelrod probably deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to selling reform...