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Health care compromise worth trying
By Randy Patrick
March 2, 2010

President Clinton’s arrogance may have sealed the fate of health care reform in 1994. On Sept. 22, 1993, the president told the nation’s lawmakers they should agree that “you will pass, and I will sign legislation” the White House would write to guarantee health care security.

That didn’t happen. Opponents dug in their heels, the insurance industry poured millions of dollars into misleading TV ads to convince Americans the president’s “play or pay” plan was really a public insurance plan, and Republicans used the hysteria that generated to win a landslide in the mid-term elections.

Fast forward 16 years. The cost of health care has more than doubled, and the number of uninsured Americans has grown to more than 45 million and insurance profits have soared.

Again, an idealistic young president has proposed measures to curb some of the abuses of the private insurance system and cover the uninsured.

Again, conservatives are protesting this as “socialism.” The irony is that the Democratic plan is similar to a Republican alternative from 1994.

According to political journalist Joe Klein, that Republican plan by Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island would have attempted universal coverage through an individual mandate or tax credit system that was also favored by moderate Democrats such as Bill Bradley. Even Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole backed it. But Clinton wouldn’t give.

Years later, Clinton admitted to Klein that if he had dumped his own 1,300-page bill in the waste basket and said “I’m with him (Chafee),” he might have gotten a health care reform bill.

President Obama and the Democrats should learn from Clinton’s mistake.

Sen. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has made it clear he’s interested in denying the Democrats success on their biggest domestic policy initiative, so we have to question his sincerity when he says, as he did again after last week’s health care summit, that the Democrats should start over on a new bill with Republicans. But I think the president should call his bluff.

The administration should scrap the Senate bill, which is unpopular and has no chance of passing unless the Democrats ramrod it through using the budget reconciliation process. Then they should go back to the table and work with moderate Republicans on an individual mandate bill like the one Republican Gov. Mitt Romney got enacted in Massachusetts. However, the White House should insist that the bill include stringent regulations to prevent insurance companies from denying sick people coverage and gouging policy holders. It should also include tax breaks or vouchers to help the working poor.

Retain the House restrictions against using public funds to pay for abortions, and drop the public option, which has been so misrepresented that it would now cause any bill to fail.

Finally, give the Republicans two things they badly want: tort reform and a provision to allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines.

Such a compromise would be truly bipartisan and likely gain enough GOP support to get a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate and a majority in the House, and it would frustrate efforts by McConnell and other partisans to thwart the president’s agenda.

At least it’s worth trying. But if the Democrats insist on their damn-the-torpedoes, go-it-alone strategy with the current flawed Senate bill and reconciliation process, they will lose.

Then they will also lose the Senate and probably the House in November, and even if President Obama wins re-election in 2012, his agenda will be hindered by partisan gridlock.

We’ve seen it all happen before.

Randy Patrick is the managing editor of The Winchester Sun. Contact him at rpatrick@winchestersun.com, or read his blog at http://kyvoice.com/wincestersun/newerworld.

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