Health Care Reform -- A Return to Optimism

I've resisted blogging about health care for a while because I wanted to be sure the legislative maneuvering was over before I celebrated the new law's passage.  Now, after watching Meet the Press this morning, I feel I have a better sense for the nature of the new law.  It is "sweeping social legislation," as the New York Times might put it, and it does represent part of the change that Pres. Obama was elected to bring to the country.  But, as one guest on MTP put it this week, it is "the end of the beginning," not the beginning of the end, for health care reform (or the world as we know it).  The law will be challenged in states like Nevada, which is "governed" by a man whose sole focus is to maintain the status quo on taxes, no matter how strained the social safety net becomes.  I don't expect those lawsuits to amount to much.  I do expect that these measured reforms will begin to take effect, and people will begin to notice that the country hasn't fallen off a cliff and the dire consequences predicted by the minority party haven't come to pass.  The reforms may not go far enough to curb costs or even improve access, and there is still a lot of confusion out there over what the law actually does.  Like every law, it will have unintended consequences.  That doesn't mean that the law wasn't necessary to curb abuses among health insurance companies, provide access to health care for millions of uninsured Americans, and cut costs for all of us who pay higher premiums due to the chaotic nature of health care delivery in this country.  I wish there were more ways to take some of the burdens of health care off the American worker -- who doesn't hate paying co-pays and doctor's bills for ineffective or unnecessary treatments? -- and I think this new bill takes some steps in that direction.  "Medicare for all" has been a rallying cry for the left recently, and it would be a simple solution to a complex problem to just have the government pick up the tab for health insurance for everybody, as they currently do for our elders.  That plan would also be enormously expensive, but it would relieve some of the pressure that exacerbates our country's poor health and causes illnesses to lead to bankruptcies.  I don't know if we're ready for that reform just yet.  Still, it would be nice to know that such reforms were possible, due to renewed trust in government and the ability of the country to solve problems.  Let's see if in 2014 or 2018 we still feel as passionately about health care reform as we do now.  I'm looking forward to a healthier America -- not only in terms of physical and psychological health but also societal health -- in that near future.