Like I said, Obama, our Compromiser-in-Chief, has sold us out. Max Baucus's Senate Finance Committee, which has 3 Dems and 3 Republicans, will craft what will probably be the final health reform bill passed by Congress. Obama won't push back. Single-payer, the only real way to bring down health costs, was always dead in the water. And now a public option is dead.
Obama has also flip-flopped by supporting a mandate for individuals or employers to purchase health insurance, something he opposed during his campaign while Hillary supported it.
So the bill that will be passed will be neither fish nor fowl: it won't be "liberal" enough to capitalize on the negotiating power of a large number of Americans insured through a government-sponsored, or government run, plan; and it won't be "free-market" enough to please the dreamers who still believe "unleashing consumerism" in health care is the way to bring down costs, as if the problem is that people don't shop hard enough for good deals. Those with private insurance will likely see their premiums go up, not down.
And whatever goes wrong, Obama will be blamed for it, (all five or so bills in Congress not written by Obama are collectively known, after all, as "ObamaCare"), and by extension, all the liberals who said all along this wouldn't work. That said, it may yet be an incremental improvement over the current system, we shall see.
So Much For Single-Payer
What's in the Baucus plan, what isn't and what it all means for the future of ObamaCare.
By David Whelan
September 16, 2009 | Forbes.com
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