THE PLANK DECEMBER 29, 2009
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At the Atlantic, James Fallows is remembering the passage of a similarly audacious health care program, Medicare, during the 1960s:
At the time I didn't register the significance of Medicare's passage--something now so engrained as part of the American Way that today's Republicans have positioned themselves as its protectors (against the alleged ravages of the Obama plan). I think that these two quick-reaction TNR articles--by Jonathan Chait, here, and Jonathan Cohn, here--do a wonderful job of registering the significance of the Senate's 60-39 vote today in favor of the bill. Chait's is particularly thorough in parsing and addressing the main objections to the bill. These two writers, plus Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, have through the long course of this debate provided a clinic in how to explain the policies and the politics of a very important, very controversial, and very very verrrrrryy complicated public decision.
Take a look below for more of Jon Cohn and Jon Chait's best health care commentary.
"Recognizing Reform: Is The Senate Bill Really Worse Than Nothing?" Jonathan Cohn (12/21/09).
"The Enthusiasm Gap: Why Liberals Should Not Be Disappointed With The Current Lackluster Health Legislation," Jonathan Cohn (8/7/09).
"Your Health Care System: A Map," Jonathan Cohn (7/1/09).
"Creative Destruction: The Best Case Against Universal Health Care," Jonathan Cohn (11/12/07).
Click here to read all of Jonathan Cohn's articles.
"And the Rest Is Just Noise: Why The Health Care Bill Is The Greatest Achievement Of Our Time," Jonathan Chait (12/14/09).
"The Rise of Republican Nihilism" and "A History of Conservative Opposition to Reform," Jonathan Chait & TNR Staff (12/21/09).
"Down With The Senate: How The Upper Chamber Is Killing Health Care Reform—And What We Can Do About It," Jonathan Chait (8/25/09).
Click here to read all of Jonathan Chait's articles.
2 comments
The Jons and others who praise them are indulging in selective memory. Medicare is not the most recent major government "reform" to our health care system, nor the most momentous in terms of impact on health care for American citizens. For Americans younger than 65, and for the business community, the reforms of the 1970s that created HMOs and other forms of managed care, put the insurance industry in charge of treatment decisions, and greatly increased that industry's power and profitability, had a much greater impact. It is those reforms, that failed entirely to achieve their aims of cost containment and broader access to care, that this current legislation most resembles. Medicare is an openly "socialized" reform. These current approaches, like those of the 1970s, are political exercises in denying and hiding the basic truth; that a sophisticated, modern medical system is not possible without socializing costs.
- esmense
December 29, 2009 at 12:24pm
James Fallows is SPOT ON!!!!!! Jon and Jon, nobody has done more to keep me informed on health care reform in general, and this health care reform in particular, then you two. I have been riveted by the health care debate for the last couple of years and consider reform to be the biggest domestic moral issue of our generation. I share your articles and blog posts around the internets (both of them) regularly. And you have talked me off the ledge numerous times when the bill wasn't turning out as progressive as I would have hoped. I deeply appreciate your level-headed analysis throughout the debate - and, Chait, your column on the momentousness of the bill was a solid and strong reminder that we need to appreciate the historic nature of what has been accomplished - a progressive bill created and negotiated by progressives. The New Republic is must read for me, due in a large part to you guys. Thanks for all you do! BUT I expect nothing less from my fellow Michigan Grads anyway - HAIL TO THE VICTORS!!!!
- mcgumbleton
December 30, 2009 at 6:08pm