Some readers may remember the now deceased advice columnist Ann Landers – something of a national icon in her heyday. Sometimes she was off target — like when she told readers not to throw rice at weddings because birds would explode from eating it — but I was thinking today about (the only) one of her columns that stuck with me. She wrote that the key to a happy life is to embrace change gracefully. Good advice I think, but hard to do; change doesn’t come easily to most people.
And in the wake of last night’s elections it appears that change to our health care system is just going to be that much harder to achieve. But discerning readers know it will still come.
It will take a while to absorb what the elections mean. Incoming House Republican leaders are already talking about their plans to repeal the health reform law. A straight out repeal will be hard, though, for the obvious reason that the President will likely veto it. And it will cost money – not save money — according to the Congressional Budget Office. At a minimum though, the House will work hard to gum up the works by subjecting the Obama Administration to numerous investigations and attempt to limit funding for implementation activities – slowing down the process of change. But outright repeal seems unlikely.
In 1994, after the defeat of President Clinton’s health care reform plan, both Houses of Congress flipped and a fierce struggle ensued. Plans to cut Medicare and Medicaid were vetoed by the President, and a government shutdown followed – an event that resounded to the President’s benefit. Ultimately it seems that Congressional leaders overreached. And there is a danger that they will do so again.
Most polling is clear that the economy – and not health care — was the #1 issue on voters’ minds. And support for the Affordable Care Act actually went up in September when new features of the law such as protecting families from lifetime caps and free preventive care became effective – these are popular features of the law. When the rubber hits the road, and the discussion becomes grounded in reality about what repeal means, I don’t believe that voters will want to turn back the clock.
For those of us working towards a more just health care system, our task to convince the country to embrace change gracefully became a little harder today. But I firmly believe that the next decade will be an historic period in our nation’s history that brings much needed progress for the millions of Americans who can’t access the affordable, quality health care they need and deserve. And we must roll up our sleeves and keep plugging away.