Healthcare: Is Obama Making Too Many Concessions?

In order to have his health care reforms adopted, Barack Obama has abandoned the idea of an insurance financed and administered by the federal government, and discarded the last progressive innovations of his initial project plans.

The more Obama’s intended health care system reform compromises advances, the less visible the change becomes. On Saturday, the president rejoiced over the fact that the Democratic-majority Senate reached an agreement that would pave the way towards the reform’s adoption in Congress on Christmas eve. “After a half-century of battles, we are on the verge of making the reform a reality,” he remarked enthusiastically. The problem is that this new compromise came with a heavy price.

Given the Republicans’ opposition, the Democrats need between 60 and 100 voices in the Senate to have this text adopted. Even if it appeared that this objective had been reached this weekend, concessions made to the most conservative Democratic senators removed the the last of the progressive innovations advanced in the President’s original project. The document that was adopted is officially presented as a way of providing coverage to “31 to 36 million American citizens” who lack coverage today. It is hard for us to see how the intention to cover the poorest could function effectively, given that it is already limited; 5 million citizens would still not be able to access the coverage according to the figures produced in the proposal that is currently being adopted.

Furthermore, it will be difficult to carry out the plan to provide aid to salaried employees lacking the necessary means so that they can subscribe to a private insurance plan. According to the government, the plan therefore risks leaving a large percentage of the 36 million people currently uninsured still without insurance. Some non-governmental sources say there will be 50 million citizens left without Social Security, and this figure is rising quickly due to the current explosion of unemployment.

Another concession for the progressives and numerous women’s associations is that no public aid will be given to finance abortion. The Democratic senator Ben Nelson, who made his vote conditional on the inclusion of this clause, was particularly satisfied by this arrangement. At this stage, the great conquerors of this “reform” are the private insurance company lobbies and the anti-abortion associations. The drafted bill no longer contains the moderate principle forbidding companies from refusing coverage to citizens having pre-existing health problems, nor the extension of Medicaid, a minimal medical plan intended for the poorest. We are light-years away from universal coverage, and very far from the reform that should serve as an emblem of Obama’s presidency. Even if the Senate adopts the draft before Friday, the obstacle course is not complete. The text that is adopted will then have to fuse with that which was validated by the House of Representatives in the beginning of November. During this period, new compromises may arise that allow Republicans and conservative Democrats to promote their agendas over those of their rivals.