DESPITE THE HISTORIC nature of the new health care reform law, it’s difficult not to be ambivalent about the measure.

Certainly, the law’s crowning achievement is its provisions that will make a huge dent in the number of people in the United States without health insurance by expanding Medicaid and establishing federal health insurance premium subsidies. In all, congressional budget analysts estimate, 32 million people will gain coverage.

The benefits of that expansion of coverage go far beyond the peace of mind to the newly insured and their families. Care will be delivered in many cases in more appropriate settings, such as physicians’ offices rather than emergency rooms, and medical problems will be detected and treated sooner, saving not just money but also increasing the likelihood of faster recoveries.

On the other hand, the way the legislation was drafted and worked its way through Congress was a disgrace to both parties. From the outset, Republicans seemed more interested in trying to block the legislation than playing a role in fashioning it. Democrats were not much better. With an exception here and there, we doubt that many congressional Democrats were interested in accommodating the views of GOP members.

Ultimately, the nation is the loser for that growing intolerance. No one party has a monopoly on good or bad ideas. A better legislative product would have resulted had members from both parties played a role in shaping it.

The passage of the legislation, though, is far from the end in the health care reform journey. Undoubtedly, changes will be necessary to correct drafting errors and, more significantly, to rewrite certain provisions as problems arise. We hope that second effort truly will be a bipartisan one.

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This entry was posted by Adam V. Russo on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 8:17 am and is filed under Health Care Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.