It doesn’t appear that Republicans have anything to worry about in terms of the health care debate that’s going on in Washington and is trickling down to the state legislatures, including ours.
The public isn’t in favor of it.
And the Democrats seem to be ripping each other apart over whether the President is selling out progressives.
It looks like the GOP can take this one to the bank.
Or at least to this year’s congressional elections.
But I got a note the other day from a friend of mine who is a strong Republican and maybe the most knowledgeable person I know about the details of health care reform.
He’s been reading my entries about the potential threat of Republican-sponsored suits against the Cornhusker Kickback and the notion that the federal government can require individuals to purchase health care insurance.
He told me that the GOP can’t rely on drama alone- that while folks are against the overall bills the Democrats are passing, they are in favor of specific provisions, namely coverage of pre-existing conditions and the formation of health care exchanges.
He said that the GOP has to make sure that it doesn’t wind up losing independents on the the issue and that this will require a “serious initiative to make insurance affordable and reduce the uninsured (though it doesn’t have to be universal.)”
Interestingly, the big insurance companies understand that most Americans do not believe that a pre-existing condition should make coverage almost impossible to obtain and afford.
But they tend to believe that the economics of addressing pre-existing conditions is only viable if there is also some kind of “mandate” that brings relatively healthy young people into the system.
At the moment, I still think that sentiments about federal overrreach and concerns that the Democrats’ plan may damage the quality of care and raise taxes for everyone are driving the public’s response.
But my friend’s note is a reminder that Bob McDonnell won in Virginia by rebranding the GOP from the party of “no” to the party of solutions.
Leave a Reply