Falling off the fence... may need to see a DR!

I have been on the fence about health care and since some folks actually like my political ponderings I thought I would share my conclusion and paste a link to what the REAL fiscal conservative movement has to say about the bill when discussing it. It is by no means a glowing review but it is an honest point by point analysis of what benefits it affords, shortcomings it clearly has in the short term, and future liabilities that require a "follow through" from future politicians. This follow through is seriously in doubt based on historical trends.

http://bit.ly/cAMG1s

After following this debate closely and empathizing with the calls to scrap the plan and find a more market oriented solution, my conclusion is that I support passing health care this weekend. My main conclusion is that the democrats have produced a bill that reflects our center left President even though they had no honest broker from the right that would require such balance, he held the liberals at bay all on his own. Obama used the diversity in his own party as a proxy to infuse republican ideas that not too long ago represented the "Bob Dole compromise". Imagine being forced to work with someone on a school project who was forced to take the class. All they would do is complain about the teacher and complain about the work, of which you were doing all of. In the end would you be able to translate their infantile whining into constructive criticism and infuse it into the final product as if they were given properly. That is Obama's gift.

I support this legislation because it is not the end in my mind but the beginning. There is nothing in it that can not be tweaked by a future congress (ie a good republican one) if the size and scope begin to balloon out of control as the republicans have promised. There is much doubt about future politicians appetite to follow through on the 2018 taxes and much well deserved skepticism about the fuzzy math that leads to the CBO deficit reduction number, but it is our responsibility to attend to these challenges not shrink from them. What the bill does is bring the invisible "the ER is my primary care physician:" into the light, gives me certainty that if I want to leave my big employer I can still get healthcare, and if God forbid someone in my family gets that rare expensive disease seen on the show House the insurance company will spend their efforts supporting me, not devoting themselves to finding a way not to pay.

I also feel that one of the most important aspects is this bill will declare from the rooftops that the status quo will change and the powerful forces against this change will now have to reset their calculations about how to self regulate. If insurance companies do not pivot to competing for our business on quality of care as a competitive advantage as opposed to their skill at denying coverage then they will usher in the single payer system that this bill pointedly avoided. My hope is that this bill will shift the ocean liner towards a future where America comes together to solve the problems and focus all parties on solving the problems. If the energy used to fight this bill can now be used to solve our problems within this new system, we can do it. I must note though that I do not believe this bill solves the problems and do concede it has the potential to do harm. That risk is now ours to manage.