He did it!

One of the issues I have continued to follow after I returned from the US is health care. I have also been following how Obama is doing as president. It was a no-brainer to vote for him being on the center-left myself, especially after the Bush years. While I knew expectations on him were wildly unrealistic, I was still hoping for say just a couple of miracles.

However, in the first year he had managed to disillusion everyone who voted for him and enraged everyone who did not. The health care debate was going badly for the Democrats with Republicans managing to vilify it quite effectively. So when I went to the US for my quarterly business trip in February, I was in a morose mood. I was especially disgusted by how the loss of one senate seat could make Obama and the Dems so timid (filibuster, schmilibuster).

However there were signs of a turnaround in those two weeks I was there. When the history is written about how Obama pulled off a legislative achievement that could very well rank among FDR's New Deal, the Reagan tax cuts and LBJ's civil rights bill, the healthcare summit should be judged as a turning point. It was political theater at its best, seemingly orchestrated only for the O man's benefit. He seemed like the only adult in the room, and just couldn't help coming across as the most intelligent and knowledgeable on the issues. He also came off as gracious in accepting a couple of Republican ideas and in a hilarious moment acknowledged the feisty John McCain's criticism about some pork barrel in the bill.

Since then, the Democrats (led by the formidable Nanci Pelosi) seemed to have new energy infused into them and for once have acted with the courage of their convictions. The Dems in the House are passing a bill that is supposedly unpopular (depending on what polls you believe) and might even cost some of them their seats in November. Why? Because they believe it is the right thing. Where were they all these years? Looks like there is some hope for them after all.

So why do I think this bill is a good thing ? There is a part of the bill that spends money to cover un-insured and under-insured people*. I support this part for the same reasons why most bleeding heart liberals do. Don't get me wrong - capitalism is the greatest thing since steamed idlis, but there are a couple of things for which we should make an exception. Health care is one of them.

Then there is the part that prohibits insurance companies from doing plain old shady things - like stopping coverage once you get sick and deny coverage for pre-existing conditions ( the latter is arguably less shady). The fact that profit-minded companies will do things like these (can't even blame them), is exactly why we need to exempt health care from capitalism and free markets. And why it is reasonable for a social justice minded government to get into this business.

There is a supposed third goal of this bill that reduces the upward spiral of health care costs. The problem is real enough (US spends the most per capita on health care in the world, while it is not in the top 15 nations in terms of health indicators). But this part seems so complicated that we will never know until we see some results.

- R. Balaji