Backed by more than $600 billion, there appears to be genuine health reform momentum.
Much of the focus has been on covering the 15 percent of Americans who are uninsured, but as Ezra Klein points out, that also means that 85 percent of the country have health insurance. In fact, 95 percent of the people who voted for Obama are insured, and as Mr. Klein quotes one of the President’s senior health advisers, “We need to think about what we’re doing for them.”
That’s a good point, since in the long run, that majority will end up paying to cover the uninsured, likely in the form of higher taxes of some kind.
So begins a huge public relations war to sway the opinion of the majority of Americans who have health insurance. If they feel they’ll be worse off after health reform, the legislation will fail. If health reform will better what they already have, the President will likely be successful.
Lost in the process are the uninsured themselves, whose minority voice likely won’t influence the outcome either way.
Related posts:
- Will the public limit the degree of health reform?
- How the health reform debate needs to be re-framed
- Why Americans fear radical health care reform
- Do Americans really want health care reform?
- How health care reform can improve public health
- When it comes to health care reform, winners and no losers?
- Waiting Canadians = Uninsured Americans?
{ 3 comments }
What about those who have health insurance tied to a job, and their job is at risk in this economy? Even people who have health insurance would benefit from knowing they can have coverage if they lose their job.
it is my opinion, based on personal research, that the majority of people who have insurance do not like their insurance. Most of those who have insurance think that they have to pay too much for their insurance and visits to the doctor. So, I think that most of them are hoping that ’something’ is ‘done to them’, in the form of ‘free’ healthcare. Or, at least, I think they might prefer to pay higher taxes instead of being able to itemize and control their healthcare expenditures.
Hospitals know that hospitalists are cost-effective. It would hurt hospitals to go back to the old system. They will pay hospitalists what is necessary.
-Steve
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