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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Thought for the Day

Four years from now, before all the healthcare elements are phased in, the final legislation will look very different from what is passed now.

There will be tons of amendments changing this legislation tacked onto military and ag funding bills.

The "bones" of the bill will probably remain the same (I can't see a true "public option" being added later,) but almost every dollar figure and many, many of the requirements and mandates on individuals, doctors, and insurance companies will likely be modified through later legislation.

So, don't get too caught up in the details as they're very likely to change in the years ahead. This vote is more about a starting point and whether there will be reform at all.

2 Comments:

  • Very true. This is why I have trouble with purity politicians, like Kucinich on the left or Stupak on the right. Right now I think it's important to get something out there, and to give people time that realize the world didn't end and American didn't suddenly become a socialist collective.

    My hope is that as the boy-who-cried-wolf Republicans will have gone to the fear-and-lie well one too many times and the real news media will start reporting their theatrics as just that. Don't laugh. One can hope.

    I do think there's a political marketability to the "Medicare-for-all" concept. Not even the most paranoid of the village idiots would give up their socialist, government-run health care. And when you make it an optional buy in as part of universal mandated health care... It just seems more possible to extend the universally popular Medicare program into a public option (but with a different marketing name) than to create another separate stove-pipe agency to mimic Medicare, but for people < 65.

    By Blogger -epm, at 10:37 AM  

  • The one thing is, I wouldn't expect any major additions in the future. There may be program modifications or even quiet expansions, but whatever the "bones" are, that's likely to remain.

    As to medicaire for all, I agree that that is a good selling point.

    And it puts the Republicans in a hard spot. Because any discussion of cutting that new "medicare" will be seen as a threat by the misinformed elderly.

    (Remember just 4 years ago when the Bush folks tried to push a social security cut?)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:59 AM  

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