By: Dr. Howard Dean
Source: thedailybeast.com
For the first time since Harry Truman, real health-care reform is finally within reach. While health-care reform may well pass with only Democratic votes just like Medicare in 1965, this should no longer be seen as a fight between liberal and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. This is now a fight between the insurance companies and the American people. The reason we are finally going to get real health-care reform is that the plan President Obama put forward recognizes the importance of giving the American people a choice: If you like what you have, you can keep it. If you don’t, there will be a public-health-insurance option. The president’s steadfast support has been critical to reform because without a public option, there is no reform, just a shuffling of deck chairs and wasting $1 trillion in taxpayers’ money.
A large number of the American people—more than 72 percent, including more than 50 percent of Republicans—strongly support the public option.
As of yesterday, both the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee—ably led by Sen. Chris Dodd and guided by the wisdom of Ted Kennedy—demonstrated that they are listening to the American people. Both have passed plans that represent real reform. While the bills are not perfect, they include a public-health-insurance option like the American people have asked for. It’s not yet clear what the Senate Finance Committee will do, but it’s clear that they too should take a stand for real reform and support the bill passed by the HELP committee.
