Should Democrats kill the Senate bill?

There are two independents in the Democratic caucus – Joe Lieberman wants the Democrats to fail Bernie Sanders wants them to succeed.  Joe Lieberman is a sociopath- Bernie Sanders is a human being. It may take independent Bernie Sanders to save the Democrats from themselves. ~ Ron Beasley

Ron may be right about the whole sociopath vs. human being thing – I have no argument there.  But I do think it’s short-sighted to vote against this bill, however much I may dislike it.  This reform opens the door to further reforms, bringing healthcare closer and closer to a better model, whether that ends up being single-payer (Medicare for all) or a robust system of national exchanges open to everyone.

However, killing this bill and starting from scratch will only make reform more difficult in the future.  Unless liberals think that they can get even more liberal Senators in the next few years, I’d say the chance for an even worse bill go up in the near-term.

So we’re witness to “special comments” like this one from Keith Olbermann:

We have all watched this bill shrink from limited but encouraging reform, to its current status as – in Dr. Dean’s frank assessment from last night – “a bailout for the insurance industry.” Surely the ratio of benefits to us, and benefits to our insurance overlords has shrunk to less than 1:1.

Enough.

At this point it’s good to remember that Olbermann is a cable news pundit with absolutely no accountability which is why he can say such stupid things and get away with it – just like Howard Dean.

The fact of the matter is, under the Senate bill more of the uninsured will become insured.  The exchanges will provide an avenue for normal people who currently can’t afford health insurance to purchase it and gain coverage.  New rules will forbid insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and will prevent insurers from dropping coverage based on technicalities.  More people will be eligible for Medicaid, and Medicare will be made somewhat more fiscally solvent.

Is this perfect reform?  Of course not.  I’ve vented my frustration with it before – going so far as to call it a joke.  But then I woke up and remembered that this was the American political system we were talking about….

Does it lead us down the road toward better reforms in the future?  I think so.

It’s time for Utopian visions of healthcare reform to end.  Liberals need to realize that in an imperfect world, imperfect reform is just a first step.  This bill may be ugly, but it’s a lot less ugly than the status quo – even if it doesn’t do enough to change the status quo.  Killing this bill will do one thing and one thing only: it will kill reform entirely.  President Obama and this Congress will have no political capital remaining to go at it again, and Republicans will gain enough seats in 2010 to make further reforms all but impossible.  A reconciliation process is an option, but not a good one, and it’s fraught with pitfalls.

It’s time to stop pretending that somehow a better bill is out there within our grasp.  It’s not.  It’s time to pass reform and fix it later.  I know there are good arguments on both sides of the fence on why this bill is bad news, but there are even better arguments out there about why the status quo is worse.

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