{"id":352136,"date":"2010-02-23T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/2010\/02\/23\/2556933\/obama-takes-lead-on-health-reform.html#mi_rss=Opinion"},"modified":"2010-02-23T03:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T08:00:00","slug":"editorial-obama-takes-lead-on-health-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/352136","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Obama takes lead on health reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Obama finally reversed his above-the-fray stance on health care reform. Up until now, he left details of a bill up to the House and Senate, which after a year of debate have struggled to find common ground. The longer the wrangling has gone on, the more dissatisfied the public has become. <\/p>\n

Obama published his own plan, eliminating special deals such as the so-called “Cornhusker kickback” for Nebraska, and taking elements from the already passed House and Senate bills. As he promised, Obama posted his proposal online 72 hours before a Thursday summit with congressional leaders (see www.whitehouse.gov\/health-care-meeting\/proposal<\/a>).<\/p>\n

While Americans justifiably are frustrated with the politicians, they still want action. A Feb. 8 Washington Post\/ABC poll asked voters, “Do you think lawmakers in Washington should keep trying to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan, or should give up on comprehensive health care reform?” Sixty-three percent said, “Keep trying to pass.” <\/p>\n

Thursday’s summit is a last-ditch attempt to build support among wavering Democrats and resisting Republicans, but Obama should leave no doubt that the time has come for action. No excuses. <\/p>\n

The Democrats have large majorities in both houses (59 of 100 Senate seats; 233 of 435 House seats). The American people deserve an up or down vote. If the majority Democrats fail to make that happen, the blame rests squarely on them. <\/p>\n

The elements outlined in Obama’s plan resonate with the public.<\/p>\n

The most recent Newsweek poll (Feb. 17-18) shows strong support for: <\/p>\n

• Creating a new insurance marketplace – the Exchange – that allows people without health insurance to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive rates: 81 percent.<\/p>\n

• Requiring health insurance companies to cover anyone who applies, even if they have a pre-existing medical condition: 76 percent. <\/p>\n

• Requiring most businesses to offer health insurance to employees, with tax incentives for small business owners to do so: 75 percent.<\/p>\n

• Requiring that all Americans have health insurance, with the government providing financial help to those who can’t afford it: 59 percent.<\/p>\n

• Preventing insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick: 59 percent.<\/p>\n

A January Kaiser poll shows the popularity of other elements in the Obama plan:<\/p>\n

• Expanding Medicaid to cover everyone with incomes under $29,000 a year for a family of four: 62 percent.<\/p>\n

• Allowing children to stay on their parents’ insurance through age 25: 60 percent.<\/p>\n

Obama largely adopted the Senate’s approach to paying for the legislation, including a proposed increase in the Medicare payroll tax for individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and couples earning more than $250,000, and a tax on high-cost health care plans.<\/p>\n

Responding to recent premium hikes by insurance companies (such as Anthem Blue Cross of California), Obama has added a proposal for new federal authority to block excessive rate increases. <\/p>\n

Obama finally seems to understand that doing nothing, or futzing around for another year, is not an option. He has his plan. Now he has to go to the American people directly and campaign for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama finally reversed his above-the-fray stance on health care reform. Up until now, he left details of a bill up to the House and Senate, which after a year of debate have struggled to find common ground. The longer the wrangling has gone on, the more dissatisfied the public has become. Obama published his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}