Health Care Reform

I'm feeling quite discouraged by the direction Health Care Reform has taken since the State of the Union Address last week. There was a lot of debate and discussion about fixing health care during the long presidential campaign. Then there was a full year of legislative debate and discussion about fixing health care during President Obama's first year. Both houses of Congress have passed a bill and yet it seems like we are back at square one after the Massachusettes election. I thought the President could take the Congress to task and drag them over the finish line with an aggressive call to action, but instead he acted as if the debate should continue, asking any member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, to come forward with good ideas if they had any. This, to me, was the weakest possible message to send, other than to say they had failed and they should move on, and he was never going to do that. Ezra Klein made it plain:

It is very, very, very important to be clear on what the death of health-care reform looks like. It is not a vote that goes against the Democrats. It is not an admission that the White House has moved on from the subject. It is continued statements of commitment from the key players paired with a continued stretching of the timetable. Like everything else in life, policy initiatives grow old and die, even if people still love them.

If it's possible to pinpoint the exact moment when comprehensive health care reform died under the Obama administration, this line from the State of the Union Address is it:

But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.  Let me know. Let me know.  I'm eager to see it.