Mr. Obama: Listen to Vermont (editorial)

Posted: 12/17/2009 09:54:50 PM EST

During the campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, this paper at one point wondered whether Barack Obama might become "the Great Compromiser," rather than a strong, effective leader for change. Observing the staggering health care reform bill the president now is urging Democrats to rally around, we may have our answer. It is not a development to gloat over, but there it is.

As former Vermont Governor Howard Dean said this week, the current reform bill version in the Senate -- minus any public option on health insurance -- "is not worth passing," and would not meet the original goal of controlling medical care costs. Yet, President Obama, publicly at least, is urging his party members to do just that -- to get what he thinks they must settle for, not what most of them wanted.

In truth, what this bill accomplishes is very little, since it will greatly increase spending by the federal government but provide no public option competition to pressure the private health care and insurance sectors to lower medical costs. In other words, this is a time bomb that will blow up on Democrats -- and rightly so -- when the bill comes due and no striking benefits are perceived by most of the American public.

The bill also mandates that almost everyone have health insurance, which, in the absence of a public option, means private insurance companies would gain tremendously in increased business. Dr. Dean pointed this out in an op-ed in the Washington Post,
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saying he would not, if he were a senator, vote for the bill in the current form. He argued, and we heartily agree, that with people forced to have insurance, whether subsidized by the government or not, there is no incentive to control costs, which might justify such a massive government commitment.

Nowhere does the bill begin to break the grip large, for-profit corporate entities have on our health care system. In this sense, it would be a huge failure despite the positive aspects of this bill, such as an end to denial of coverage for pre-existing medical conditions. And it will fail to lower costs while creating expenses the federal government cannot sustain. All of this will come back to haunt the government, especially the Democrats.

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http://www.benningtonbanner.com/opinion/ci_14021547

Dr. Dean is telling the truth.