The Obama health care soundtrack
Thursday’s health care summit is only the latest episode in a long-running Washington drama.
In fact, it was a year ago Wednesday that President Obama cited health care as one of his top goals during a speech to a joint session of Congress. Since then, the president has come to the brink of an unprecedented national health care plan — and now sees the entire enterprise at risk because of a single election in Massachusetts.
Herewith, an Obama health soundtrack from over the past 12 months.
The overture: On Feb. 24, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, Obama sets his goals to address “the crushing cost of health care:”
This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes. In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages. And in each of these years, 1 million more Americans have lost their health insurance. It is one of the major reasons why small businesses close their doors and corporations ship jobs overseas. And it’s one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget.”
The first summit: Obama meets with health care stakeholders on March 24, and would eventually win support from doctors, hospital, and prescription drugs groups:
In this effort, every voice must be heard. Every idea must be considered. Every option must be on the table. There will be no sacred cows in this discussion. Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything we want, and no proposal for reform will be perfect. But when it comes to addressing our health care challenge, we can no longer let the perfect be the enemy of the essential.
The town halls of August: As protests against Democratic health care plans mount at Republican meetings across the country, Obama conducts his own town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., on Aug. 11.
Where we do disagree, let’s disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that’s actually been proposed. Because the way politics works sometimes is that people who want to keep things the way they are will try to scare the heck out of folks and they’ll create bogeymen out there that just aren’t real.
Another address to Congress: Seeking to regain the political initiative, Obama again goes before Congress with an address devoted specifically to health care.
I understand how difficult this health care debate has been. I know that many in this country are deeply skeptical that government is looking out for them. I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road — to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term. But that is not what the moment calls for. That’s not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it.
Special episode: That Sept. 9 speech also featured a now-famous exchange with Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.:
Obama: There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
Wilson: You lie!
Obama: It’s not true. And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up — under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.
The House moves forward: On Nov. 8, Obama praises passage of the House health care bill:
For years we’ve been told that this couldn’t be done. After all, neither chamber of Congress has been able to pass a comprehensive health insurance reform bill for generations. But last night the House proved differently … Now it falls on the United States Senate to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people.
A holiday win: The Senate passes its version of health care reform on Christmas Eve:
As I’ve said before, these are not small reforms; these are big reforms. If passed, this will be the most important piece of social policy since the Social Security Act in the 1930s, and the most important reform of our health care system since Medicare passed in the 1960s
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With today’s vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country. Our challenge, then, is to finish the job.
The Republicans strike back: As House and Senate Democrats negotiate a compromise bill, voters in Massachusetts on Jan. 19 elect Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate — giving the GOP the power to block a Democratic-only health care bill in that chamber; three days later, Obama responds at a town hall in Ohio:
Now, since this has been in the news a little bit this week, let me say a little something about health care. I had no illusions when I took this on that this was going to be hard. Seven Presidents had tried it, seven Congresses had tried it — and all of them had failed.
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So here’s the good news: We’ve gotten pretty far down the road. But I’ve got to admit, we had a little bit of a buzz saw this week.
Super Sunday challenge: Just hours before the Super Bowl, Obama tells Katie Couric of CBS News that he is calling a health care summit:
What I’ve been doing is consulting closely with the leaders in the House, the leaders in the Senate on the Democratic side. And I want to consult closely with our Republican colleagues. So, they’re gonna be coming in to the White House next week. And what I want to do is to ask them to put their ideas on the table. And then after the recess, which will be a few weeks away, I want to come back and have large meeting with Republicans and Democrats to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.
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