Healthcare Is Tying Obama Down

Only seven months since beginning his mandate, Barack Obama already seems to be a president exhausted and overwhelmed by complexities. A wide part of this image derives from the convolution of the troubles he is faced with: a serious global financial crisis and Afghanistan’s distant and complex war. Nevertheless, his most valuable political objective, the public health reform, is contributing like no other issue to the president’s weak image, in spite of having under his power the world’s most powerful country. In his attempt to pass the reform, Obama has already appealed through an astonishing speech to both Houses. This is an exceptional method that his predecessors throughout history have only used in extremely severe national emergencies. And even so, the opinion is that the healthcare reform will get stuck, similar to projects by other presidents that have never gained momentum. This was the case with Bill Clinton, one of the presidents that had also proposed drastic changes in healthcare politics.

In the United States, the majority of people tend to worry little about the necessity of medical insurance while in good and healthy conditions. This is a reason for why it is so hard to convince American society of the benefits provided by a general medical system that would protect all its citizens. North Americans are inclined to systematically doubt everything representing the government’s excessive interventionism. This doubt blinds American citizens from seeing the advantages that could be provided by Social Security and that would prevent many of the dramatic consequences resulting from expensive medical treatments endured by families. For Europeans, it is hard to believe that even though they spend more money, Americans have a worse medical system. Nevertheless, it is also hard to convince North Americans that Obama’s medical reform will be more suitable for the society as a whole.

The fact is that although Obama’s “star project” has created much controversy in the U.S., public opinion polls continue to reflect that healthcare reform is not the problem American citizens are most preoccupied with. Obama investing in this matter is a very revealing part of his political capital, without taking into consideration that he is only at the beginning of his long mandate, with the possibility of a second four-year period, and with an even greater problematic agenda. For this, Obama will need support [from the American people], much of whose trust and energy he is currently exhausting through this delicate and uncertain reform.