The Truth About Support for Healthcare Reform

Thank you Joel Benenson for writing in today's Washington Post what I've been thinking for months: why do so many polls show Americans are against health care reform when they strongly support individual provisions that are in the bill? I personally think this is due to the poor job of communication done by the White House and the Democrats in Congress and an excellent job of demonization by House and Senate Republicans. The first time I really heard a clear explanation from the White House of the immediate benefits of health reform was probably in last week's Weekly Presidential Address.

Reading Benenson's piece shows that the opponents of reform are only interested in preventing the President and Democratic Party from achieving a victory. Many have said that the current legislation being discussed and debated is actually more conservative than some of the Republican alternatives proposed to the Clinton health care plan of 1993. The fact of the matter is those that vote against health care reform will have to explain to voters this November why they:

1. Voted against banning insurance companies from denying coverage to those who are sick. (a.k.a. Denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions.)
2. Voted against the tax credits for small businesses offering coverage. (a.k.a. The Insurance Exchanges.)
3. Voted against helping seniors on Medicare pay less for prescription drugs. (a.k.a. The Medicare "Doughnut Hole".)

If reform gets signed into law, it will be interesting to watch opponents explain why it was necessary to vote against the entire bill knowing that these three major issues would be left unchanged if reform had not passed.