The Democrats will have an uphill political battle to screw up our health care the way they want to.
[Update a couple hours later]
Blue on blue on health care:
“It is all about Democrats,” said Adam Green, chief executive officer of Change Congress, which launched the Nelson campaign. “We only need 50 votes. We could conceivably have 60 votes on our own if we keep Democrats unified. It is a matter of convincing Democrats whose conventional wisdom is based on the old political order. This is an extremely popular proposal spearheaded by an extremely popular president, and it is OK to support it.”
As Michael Barone points out, it’s only popular among young people, who don’t care about it that much, and don’t vote that much. Those of us whose actual health is on the line will fight it tooth and nail, and the “moderate” Democrats know it.
[Mid-morning update]
The Dems have lost the AMA. I applaud the crumbling of this coalition.
[Update a couple minutes later]
More here, from the Gray Lady:
The opposition, which comes as Mr. Obama prepares to address the powerful doctors’ group on Monday in Chicago, could be a major hurdle for advocates of a public insurance plan. The A.M.A., with about 250,000 members, is America’s largest physician organization.
While committed to the goal of affordable health insurance for all, the association had said in a general statement of principles that health services should be “provided through private markets, as they are currently.” It is now reacting, for the first time, to specific legislative proposals being drafted by Congress.
The devil’s always in the details…
I have to say, when the AMA says “health services should be ‘provided through private markets, as they are currently’” it’s almost like waking up from a nightmare to discover that the pod people haven’t taken over yet after all.
It seems crazy to me, since the elderly suffer most in countries with socialized medicine, but AARP robo-phoned my mother today. A brief argument was given in favor of the government’s healthcare reform scheme, emphasizing elimination of the “doughnut hole” in Medicare Part D’s current prescription coverage. Then it was suggested that she press “1” to be connected to the offices of her congressional representatives to ask that they support the legislation. She hung up.
I know AARP offers medical insurance, but I don’t “get” their enthusiasm for this government meddling. What do they gain by selling their members on a plan that will ultimately lead to inferior health care for them?