Refusing to Accept Lowered Expectations for Health Reform

by Lisa Codispoti, Senior Advisor
and Brigette Courtot, Policy Analyst
National Women’s Law Center

A very disturbing article appeared in “The Hill” – an “inside the beltway” publication that covers our federal government and the legislative/political process. With apologies to the staff of the Hill, it is probably very safe to say that the overwhelming majority of the American public has no idea this publication even exists. And typically I’m not one to argue that folks outside the beltway need to pay attention to that Washington-insider kind-of-stuff anyway. Today is a giant exception. The article, which provided a very bad start to my day, basically quoted several members of the Senate as saying that we needed to lower our expectations for any kind of comprehensive health reform in the next Congress. These Senators argue that—given how challenging reform will be—we should focus on smaller pieces until then. That, perhaps, we’re not ready yet for that kind of comprehensive reform.

Excuse me, but not ready? How many more of the uninsured and underinsured have to die before we’re ready? How many more people need to end up in medical bankruptcy before we’re ready? How many more people have to lose their health insurance when they lose or change their job before we’re ready? How many more employers have to face the awful choice of continuing to provide health care for their employees or face competition from around the globe that will put them out of business before we’re ready? How many more people have to face the skyrocketing costs of insurance before we’re ready?

This election needs to be about health care reform that will guarantee comprehensive affordable health care for all of us. If our elected representatives are not ready for health reform- they had better get ready. And we need to hold them accountable if they fail to do so.

Merely lowering expectations will not help a single person who is impacted by the health care crisis in this country. Do we have work to do? Absolutely. But I can assure you – we are quite ready for reform.