With the economy worsening, health reform appears to be taking a back seat.
Or is it?
Bob Doherty sounds the alarm, citing the contentious opposition to reauthorizing SCHIP, which once enjoyed bipartisan support.
Several outlets are also reporting that prominent politicians, including Pete Stark and Max Baucus, have privately admitted that comprehensive health reform will be pushed back until 2010.
MedPage Today somewhat concurs in their report, acknowledging that the economy may force health reform to take a more incremental approach.
This essentially reinforces what Atul Gawande wrote in his recent New Yorker piece, where he argues that it’s likely that we have to build upon what we already have, despite the flaws.
Mr. Doherty implores the Obama administration to “strike while the iron is hot,” but with almost daily reports of layoffs and bankruptcies, does Washington have the foresight to realize that repairing health care should go hand in hand with repairing the economy?
