Fwd: qotd: What does the election mean for health care reform?

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: qotd: What does the election mean for health care reform?
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2012 06:54:34 -0800
From: Don McCanne <don@mccanne.org>
To: Quote-of-the-Day <quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org>



The New Republic
November 7, 2012
Yes, Obama Won a Mandate
By Jonathan Cohn

I've waited more than two years to write this sentence: The Affordable
Care Act is here to stay. It survived the Supreme Court and now it has
survived the threat of a unified Republican government determined to
repeal it. Implementation of the law will present huge challenges, but,
for the first time in a long while, the administration and its allies
can focus on those challenges rather than on rearguard political fights
to keep the program alive.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/109818/obama-wins-four-more-years-mandate-agenda-validation-obamacare


Comment: The reelection of President Obama and the failure of the
Republicans to gain more than filibuster control of the Senate means
that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare, or ACA) will be fully
implemented by 2014, as scheduled.

Although such complex legislation inevitably calls for legislative
refinements, any significant efforts to expand the effectiveness of ACA
would surely be blocked in the Republican-controlled House.

In the meantime, efforts on the state level to improve ACA will
continue. Although small incremental steps are possible, it is unlikely
that any model close to a true single payer system will be enacted
within the states, even if the single payer label is used. The reason is
that major enabling federal legislation would be required to construct a
true stated-based single payer system, and the House still has its
primary tool that it has wielded so effectively for the past two years:
gridlock.

Although it seems like this might be a time to kick back and wait until
the political climate improves, nothing could be further from the truth.
The first step in advancing health care justice is to educate - inform
the public on the facts.

We have two messages: 1) no matter how many tweaks are applied, ACA will
not achieve health care justice - 30 million will remain uninsured, tens
of millions underinsured, and health care costs will not be contained,
and 2) there is a model that will cover absolutely everyone, provide
access to high quality care, reduce financial barriers to care, and slow
the increase in health care spending which would benefit us all - a
single payer, improved Medicare for everyone.

We need to intensify our efforts to spread the word so that the people
of our nation will be ready to support reform enthusiastically when the
political climate becomes more favorable.