First response: Obama makes his case and hits a long double into the gap

President Barack Obama laid down the ganlet tonight (drew his line in the sand, pick your cliche) on healthcare tonight, with an hour-long speech that finally made it clear that he is committed to “a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange” that “would only be an option for those who don’t have insurance.”

That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s leaving it to Congress to craft the mechanism that gets us there, meaning we could be left with a weak “trigger” compromise on a weak reform compromise — a public option, which falls far short of the single-payer system we need, that only kicks in if other reforms fail to extend coverage or reduce costs.

And just as worrying was his rhetorical nod to deficit reduction — a problematic way of framing a debate that should be about a societal commitment, a moral commitment to those in need.

Ultimately, however, the speech’s importance may lie in its role as personal marker. President Obama finally came out and explained why healthcare reform was necessary. (I was out and didn’t get home until after the speech, so I’m relying on the text published by NYTimes.com.)

Our collective failure to meet this challenge – year after year, decade after decade – has led us to a breaking point. Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans. Some can’t get insurance on the job. Others are self-employed, and can’t afford it, since buying insurance on your own costs you three times as much as the coverage you get from your employer. Many other Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide are too risky or expensive to cover.

We are the only advanced democracy on Earth – the only wealthy nation – that allows such hardships for millions of its people. There are now more than thirty million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone.

But the problem that plagues the health care system is not just a problem of the uninsured. Those who do have insurance have never had less security and stability than they do today. More and more Americans worry that if you move, lose your job, or change your job, you’ll lose your health insurance too. More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won’t pay the full cost of care. It happens every day.

He hit the crazies — the people engaging in “demagoguery and distortion” — hard:

But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than improve it. I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.

So yes, a good speech, an effective speech, but it remains to be seen whether he’s already given up too much.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet