Posted by Shyam Moondra
The health care bill just passed by the House of Representatives is a stunning victory for President Barack Obama, who steadfastly pursued this biggest health care reform since Medicare was created in 1965. Regardless of political persuasion, this has to be considered as a major personal triumph for Obama. The health care success will now breed more success on many other issues such as financial regulations, immigration, and campaign reform. Had this health care effort failed, Obama's presidency would have been crippled making it harder to accomplish anything else in the remaining three years. Obama's success at home will also strengthen his hands on the world scene in dealing with issues related to the Middle East, Iran, and North Korea.
While the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, continues to be a polarizing figure, she sure came out as a big winner. She presented herself as a strong leader who could get things done. The biggest losers in this endeavor are the Republican leaders in the Congress, who performed very poorly and, therefore, should be replaced. While they may have been right in opposing the massive cost of the bill, the American people did not particularly appreciate their tactics of non-cooperation and partisanship.
The voters like the winners, even if they don't agree with the legislation in its entirety. Republicans' calculation that by voting "no" on health care, they would gain a political advantage in the mid-term elections in November would prove to be dumb-founded. I believe Obama's stature as a strong leader has been vastly improved; he will be perceived as a problem solver while Republicans will be viewed as merely playing politics for their own self-interest with almost no desire to solve people's problems. The November elections are not likely to yield any tangible benefits for the Republicans.
On the merit of the health care bill, I am not entirely happy with the cost of the reform. However, I am glad that this first step was taken. We can always fine-tune the reforms in the future by adding, subtracting, or modifying, as needed, to make them more effective. We just needed to start somewhere. I think we need to do more to bring down the health care cost:
· We need to regulate the rates and profits of health care providers through some kind of public commission, just as we regulate the telephone, gas, electric, and water companies today.
· We need to do more on malpractice suits and out-of-control awards with the objective to have the service providers pass on the reductions in malpractice insurance premiums and awards to the patients in the form of lower rates.
· We should allow re-importation of drugs from abroad and facilitate the introduction of generic drugs sooner.
Obama proved that he can think big and still deliver. This bodes well for his other initiatives such improving infrastructure, building high-speed railways, exploring alternative energy technologies, remaking our educational system, finalizing financial reforms, implementing campaign reforms, etc. The victory on health care can pave the way for Obama to have a remarkably successful presidency and thus become a shoe-in for a second term.
