The president Barack Obama is playing his destiny in this historic initiative to reform the U.S. health care and provide affordable health insurance coverage to all Americans. It's Obama's destiny to reform the health care, writes a major newspaper in Europe.*
The United States may be days away from a historic legislation to provide health insurance coverage for all or most Americans if things go right this week. For this to happen it will be necessary that the president Barack Obama is able to convince his own party that the bill on the table will not drag the health care reform economy for this or the next several generations. The president currently has no other issue on its agenda. The entire Administration is focused on this healthcare reform. Reforming the healthcare is such an outstanding issue int his country, the greatness of which can only equal to man's walking on the moon.
In a country that spends twice as much as any other developed nation on health, has more than 40 million people without health insurance coverage and provides a poor service to many millions more, it is easy to imagine the excitement to what is about to occur.
Barack Obama wants that the health care law comes into force later this year. He has called on the legislators who vote in both chambers to have the final bill on the table before the holidays, which begin on August 1. Some have complained of the lack of time to fully familiarize with the long bill, but the president believes that if they lose this time, given the volume of interest to reconcile, you will lose the opportunity for many more years.
Maximum intensity on healthcare bill
The lawmakers and committees in the Congress and the Senate are spending the maximum amount of hours trying seeking an agreement on the most controversial aspects of the law. One of the major stumbling blocks is the cost. How do you pay to provide health insurance coverage to nearly all Americans. How do you finance the healthcare reform.
The Congressional Budget Office, a bipartisan body whose diagnoses have full authority, warned last week that the health-reform project, currently under consideration in the House, would raise the national deficit of 239,000 million dollars for 2019. Obama denies that calculation. He has ensured that it can provide nearly universal health insurance coverage with the money saved from abuse and waste that now exist in the health care system, especially by health insurance providerins. He has vowed to not sign any legislation that represents an increase of deficit.
However, some in his own party did not believe him and the president is in a difficult position today. It is even more difficult to pass the law with bipartisan support, given the significance of the issue for the American public. Republicans accuse Obama of being the most wasteful president in history and are using the debate on health care reform to emphasize that criticism.
Excitement and fear
Citizens, meanwhile, combine an enthusiasm for health reform with the fear of an exorbitant increase in the deficit. This is to a degree that the Obama's popularity rating is falling. According to a survey published yesterday by The Washington Post and ABC, only 49% of Americans support the president's leadership on this issue.
The public will, of course, write the final sentence on the health care reform during the 2010 November elections, where the issue of health care will likely to be a major one. Obama probably wants to pass the health care reform as soon as possible so the public by 2010 November may already feel the positive effects of near-universal health insurance coverage and affordable health access.
For the Americans, while criticizing hard the current healthcare system, the transition towards a new model represents a leap in the dark. The fear of the unknown blights much of society and serves as a breeding ground for extremists who warn of the arrival of a socialist health system.
Passage of the health care bill should allay some of those fears, as there are many important points still awaiting a decision. Will, at last, there be a public health insurance plan in competition with private insurance? Will the private health insurance providers be forced to provide coverage for people with pre-existing conditions?
All of these questions have yet to be solved in the current complex legislative steps. In the meanwhile, the president needs to show a convincing evidence that providing health insurance coverage to all Americans however noble, is not going to ruing the U.S. economy with an unprecedented financial burden.
By ANTONIO CAÑO
* Source: El Pais
Translate by Armen Hareyan
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