Health Care Reform Becomes Law

"We did not fear our future. We shaped it."

Cutting Through the B*&^%$#t

It's done. A health care reform measure is finally on its way to President Obama's desk after a 219-212 House vote. A reconciliation bill to rid the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of such controversial Senate add-ons as the "Cornhusker Kickback" also passed on a 220-211 vote and is scheduled for Senate consideration minus the possibility of another filibuster threat from Scott Brown and friends. Jim Cooper (D-TN 6) waited until late Sunday to publicly confirm how he'd vote, but voted yes on the reform measure and no on the reconciliation bill.

After all the shouting and tumult, I thought the following paragraph from a Salon article by Mike Madden summed up why Republicans' vehement, nasty and often childish rhetoric was and is a load of you-know-what when one looks at what actually got passed:

But the legislation that is now heading to Obama to sign into law is chock full of GOP proposals, the product of months of bipartisan negotiations in the Senate -- and beyond that, some progressive priorities were glaringly absent. There's no public option, nothing remotely approaching a single-payer healthcare system. There isn't even a mandate that employers provide insurance for their workers, only a fine charged to companies whose employees get federal subsidies to buy their own coverage. It had the backing of the drug manufacturers, the hospitals, the doctors, all the major industries involved in providing healthcare in America except the insurance companies. And even insurers will wind up making billions of dollars, as millions of Americans suddenly get access to their products.

As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich points out, what passed on Sunday comes closer to the work of previous Republican presidents than many in the GOP would care to admit:

Obama's legislation comes from an alternative idea, begun under the Eisenhower administration and developed under Nixon, of a market for health care based on private insurers and employers. Eisenhower locked in the tax break for employee health benefits; Nixon pushed prepaid, competing health plans, and urged a requirement that employers cover their employees. Obama applies Nixon's idea and takes it a step further by requiring all Americans to carry health insurance, and giving subsidies to those who need it.

So don't believe anyone who says Obama's health care legislation marks a swing of the pendulum back toward the Great Society and the New Deal. Obama's health bill is a very conservative piece of legislation, building on a Republican rather than a New Deal foundation. The New Deal foundation would have offered Medicare to all Americans or, at the very least, featured a public insurance option.

Socialism? Nope. The GOP - who were glad to pass a deficit-enlarging Medicare drug prescription measure when they controlled Congress and the White House six years ago - is just doing what it does best: play the fear card when they know their arguments don't add up (as they've done in the past) and hope it helps them in November. I suspect jobs and the slow recovery will have more of a bearing on poll results this fall, but no matter what happens in the next election, fear lost to hope on Sunday.

Promise Amid Peril, Opportunity From Ordeal

Daschle to Health and Human Services

From Change.gov:

President-elect Obama nominates Senator Daschle as Secretary of HHS

CHICAGO -- Today, President-elect Barack Obama officially nominated former Senator Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services and named him the Director of a new White House Office on Health Care Reform. Dr. Jeanne Lambrew, who authored a book about health care reform with Daschle, will serve as Deputy Director of the White House Office of Health Reform.

This new White House office will coordinate efforts within the Administration, the Congress and across the country to pass health care reform. In his two roles, Daschle will not only implement the President's vision for health care at the Department of Health and Human Services, but also have the responsibility of leading health care reform. He will be the White House's voice on this critical issue.

President-elect Obama said, "The time has come -- this year, in this new Administration -- to modernize our health care system for the twenty-first century; to reduce costs for families and businesses; and to finally provide affordable, accessible health care for every American. Tom Daschle is one of America's foremost health care experts. He knows how to reach across the aisle and bridge partisan divides and he has the trust of folks from every angle of this issue. Jeanne brings a depth and range of experience on health care that few can match. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."

Senator Tom Daschle said, "Addressing our health care challenges will not only mean healthier and longer lives for millions, it will also make American companies more competitive and help pull our economy out of its current tailspin. The President-elect and I are committed to an open and inclusive process for health reform that goes from the grassroots up. Over the next few weeks, we will be coordinating thousands of health care discussions in homes across the country through our website change.gov where ordinary Americans can share their ideas about what's broken and how to fix it."

Today's announcements are below:

Senator Tom Daschle, Secretary of Health and Human Services and Director of White House Office of Health Reform
Senator Tom Daschle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978, serving eight years. In 1986, Daschle was elected to the U.S. Senate. Two years later he became the first Co-Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and the first South Dakotan to be elected to a leadership position in the U.S. Congress. In 1994, Daschle was elected by his colleagues as their Democratic Leader. Daschle is one of the longest-serving Senate Democratic Leaders in history and the only one to service twice as both Majority and Minority Leader. Currently an advisor to law firm of Alston and Bird, Daschle is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a visiting Professor at Georgetown University.

Dr. Jeanne Lambrew, Deputy Director of White House Office of Health Reform
Dr. Jeanne Lambrew is a nationally recognized expert on Medicare, Medicaid and children's health care. She is currently an associate professor of public affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

A Real Healthcare Plan