On March 23, while we were busy sitting at home relishing our Spring Break boredom, President Barack Obama signed the widely publicized and controversial health care reform bill into law. Many feel that this new law is America's most monumental social achievement in decades, earning President Obama a spot in the history books. One congressman called it, "The Civil Rights Act of the 21st century." Obama has achieved what many presidents before him have tried so hard, and failed, to accomplish. The bill will give health coverage to 30 million Americans who previously lacked it, adding 16 million to the Medicaid payroll. Also important, it will add increased regulation to private insurance companies and keep these companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
As a crazy woman sitting near me on the Bee Line bus in Yonkers on March 24 said to the driver (despite the "Do not talk to driver while bus is in motion" sign), "This is socialism, but so what? Everyone has socialism! They do it in Germany, Canada, even France!" The general approach of insurance is to minimize the costs for people who have problems by using contributions who do not have problems. This isn't changing the system but inviting—or in some cases forcing—more people into the pool. Socialism is a word that carries weight in America, perhaps because they have it in France, and already Republicans are working on lawsuits to stop the proposed changes.
Obama has put a lot into health care reform; it seems to have been the number-one topic of conversation for at least six months, and he has achieved his goal. Or has he? Certainly this bill, especially after it was reworked by the House and Senate after the signing, is not exactly what Obama wanted. It was a compromise. With the Republican win in the special Massachusetts election, the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority, so some wheeling and dealing, perhaps wining and dining, had to be done for the bill to be passed. Therefore, it cannot be exactly what Obama, let alone the Democratic Party, was hoping for.
Of the 219 members of the House who voted in favor of the bill, exactly zero were Republicans. All 178 Republicans, along with 34 Democrats, voted against the bill. Cast your minds back a year ago. Remember how popular Barack Obama was? Remember how he was going to be the one who could untangle the partisanship of Washington with his dashing personality and beams of hope and change? For all of the accomplishments that this bill may have (we'll have to wait years before we can objectively determine how good or bad it is), perhaps the most important outcome is that the bill has completely polarized the country. We did not even know that it was coming. Although it was an important part of Obama's platform during the last election, there was little to suggest that it would be the single focal point of the first year plus in office.
Health care was and is a major issue in this country. We spend far too great a percentage of our GDP on health care without great results in improved lifespan or quality of life. However, this country has a lot of other problems. Immigration is a mess. Every item in Wal-Mart is made by a 12-year-old overseas, while American factories and workers are dormant. Global warming has not yet been reversed. Children are not receiving an education to put them on equal footing with the rest of the world. America is fighting two wars and millions of people around the world hate us.
Yes, there are quite a few things that should be left on the president's checklist, but I fear that many of these things will now not be accomplished as a result of the health care bill. The 2008 election seemed like a perfect storm for Democrats. They had the ability to contrast a failed Republican president with a new candidate who, with his election, was given the mandate to bring major changes to America and fix some of the problems listed above. Obama may have started by picking the wrong problem to fix. I hope that my fears are unfounded, but I think that President Obama may have unwisely spent too much of his political clout on this issue, leaving him in a poor position to continue to create meaningful change. With the midterm elections of 2010 approaching, it seems unlikely that the Democrats will be the ones to gain a boost in Congress from the recent bill. It has rallied previously downtrodden conservatives to such a degree that now Palin and pals have hope for 2012. (Although she would never take office in 2013; the world is ending, remember?)
It is perhaps surprising that health care reform brought with it the controversy and polarity that it did, but perhaps when it was realized months ago that it would be this difficult, it may have been wise to put it on the back burner and move on to something else. Maybe by this time there could have been comprehensive immigration reform, a law to bring manufacturing jobs back to America and real measures to improve the environment. President Obama has perhaps written himself a page in the history textbooks of the future, but at what cost? Will the books also mention that had he reordered his to-do list that he could have done even more? The president has at least three more years in office, and it would be a real shame if the next few years are marked by polarity and stagnancy, rather than the change that America was promised.