An Unhealthy Health Care Bill

The bill the Dems are attempting to slip-slide through the House and get to the
President for signature is a product of compromise, horse trading, negotiation
and bribery, and completely satisfies no one. It contains some noble provisions such as vastly expanded coverage, limits on some of the most unsavory insurance company practices, some realizable cost savings and measures to streamline Medicare and make it more cost effective. However many of the needed changes have delayed effective
dates, and savings which will depend on future congresses to implement. If these
were so difficult and distasteful to this congress to implement now, the likelihood
that future congressmen will have the backbone to put them in force is almost non
existent.
What confronts us now is a Hobson's choice: Do we finally face the problem that the status quo is unsustainable and pass a bill, though far from perfect, that makes a substantial effort to improve matters, or do we allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good, and leave the problem to fester? It is likely that our present health
care system will continue to increase costs, reduce the number of people insured,
and cause serious economic damage to the middle class. Medicare and Medicaid will
bring the nation to the brink of bankruptcy within a decade or so if not altered.
Waiting until after elections to tackle the problems could bring us to that tipping point even sooner.