Obama and the Health Care Step

We are close to the end of the long road to health care reform. This Thursday, President Obama plans to have a health care summit featuring members of both parties including the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Majority Leader, and the Senate Minority Leader as well as Vice President Biden. This debate has at times become toxic and often gone on a tangent with extreme viewpoints and misinformation.

Last summer, President Obama took a bit of different approach then President Clinton did early in his first term when he tried to tackle the health care problem. Obama put much of the debate and focus in the hands of members of Congress. He loss control of his message and his agenda as partisanship and politics got in the way of proper debate. Early last fall, the president was able to recalibrate the issue a bit by outlining the necessity for health care reform and many of his viewpoints. Things still did not speed up, but by Christmas and the end of 2009; we saw both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate vote in favor of the health care reform bill. Even with those votes, the narrative and journey was not over as the U.S. House needed to vote on changes made by the U.S. Senate version. Reconciliation became the word of choice on many talking points lists for much of the early part of 2010. Now the debate returns to the West Wing in preparation for the big summit on Thursday, which is viewed by Democrats as a way to seal the deal on this debate and paint the picture for the American public on where both parties stand on the issue.

Today, President Obama released what is estimated at $950 billion health care reform proposal. Obama's plan is viewed as a way of hopefully pleasing both sides of the aisle and getting more of the public on board. As part of his plan, there is no mention of the public option. The public option is a major part of what liberals want to see, but lacks the potential to get even one conservative vote and more importantly; several moderate votes. The plan is also going to be key going into Thursday because Republicans will know what Obama wants from this legislation and they presumably will come to the meeting with counter thoughts or immediate points. Obama's plan can be viewed as a compromise to please all types of politicians in his party. There is a scale back on "Cadillac" insurance plans and an absence of the previously mentioned public option.

As a way of showing his effort to reach across the aisle, also included are items on cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare. Additionally, it would delay implementation of taxes on various parts of the health care sector to 2018. The proposal addresses the "donut hole" for Medicare prescription drug beneficiaries and lays out the legal requirement for Americans to own insurance while lowering some fees included in delaying getting coverage, but still putting pressure on businesses to insure their employees.

However, Republicans continue to lock in step to show any willingness to accept ideas being outlined. They continue to see this legislation as more of the same and continue to harp on their case for a clean slate or so it seems; to just stop.

Notably not in this proposal are the "Cornhusker Kickback" or the "Louisiana Purchase". Both drew much criticism especially from members of the GOP.

This proposal is certainly not the end result, but adds to this week's summit. Republicans will need to come to the debate on Thursday with reasonable solutions as their plan; if they have one, is centered upon covering a vastly smaller number of the uninsured then the two bills voted on in Congress and this proposal. The heat will build going into Thursday, but for now...this is just another step on this journey.