Insurance Versions

Will Barack Obama’s major reform be laid to rest?

After almost achieving his greatest goal, the acceptance of the health care reform package, President Barack Obama may be forced to kill his political appetite and ambition. The unexpected loss of Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate confronted the Democratic president with a tough choice: to either agree with the heavily stripped-down version of his lovingly raised reform or to simply dump it into the trash can.

Republicans did not conceal their satisfaction after receiving the results of the elections for the 41st seat in the U.S. Senate, which is composed of 100 senators who have the right to block any lawmaking initiative. Thus senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has already announced his conviction of the quick demise of Barack Obama’s health care reform, as reported by the Washington Post. The Democrats determinedly object to this position and even frightened their opponents with the possible execution of a special and rather complicated procedure to lower the required 60 votes to pass a bill down to 50 votes.

Yet, according to the U.S. president, the reform itself must inevitably receive support of both parties. Therefore, Barack Obama already struck a conciliatory tone. In an interview with television network ABC, Obama said, “I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on.” Observers instantly regarded this statement as the president’s veiled approval of the heavily stripped-down version of the health care reform, which was passed by the Senate. Note that the U.S. House of Representatives accepted a much more liberal and expensive version of the reform on which Barack Obama originally pinned his hope.

In fact, profound differences do exist between the two versions; not only according to the number of Americans, who are supposed to be covered by the insurance, but also, to a degree, according to the fortune of the government within the process. But precisely these nuances define, at the end of the day, whether the American health care reform will actually be all encompassing, or if it will be halfhearted, or even stillborn.

Incidentally, even the stripped-down version gives Barack Obama an excuse to exonerate himself from the trust his voters placed in him in 2008, and common Americans will receive at least some kind of health care. In case of the failure of reform, which conservative circles on Capitol Hill increasingly seek to achieve, there will be no doubt that Barack Obama’s, as well as the Democratic Party’s rating, will take a steep dive. Americans simply don’t understand what the White House’s leader had spent an entire year of hard work for and where the results are.