So, it's over.
President Obama met with the Republicans today to discuss bipartisanship. Except it didn't happen. And that really wasn't the purpose of this meeting anyway. Obama has known from the outset, that obstructionsim is the republican goal, and it is their only goal.
This meeting was more about lining up moderate democrats for the reconciliation maneuver. The problem is, that there are portions of the bill that cannot pass through a reconciliation process. This will leave holes in the bill that will require future legislation.
Part of me hopes that they do it. The republicans have no real ideas regarding healthcare reform, and have no agenda, despite what they say publicly...(YES, that means you John McCain). Their only agenda is taking back seats in Congress in November, nothing else matters to them.
The Senate bill is "okay". There are a number of good provisions, and some bad ones in the bill, and you know what....that's okay. We are NEVER going to get a perfect piece of legislation, it simply ain't going to happen. What we need is a starting point, and this seems as good as any legislation to start with.
What the US public needs to know, is that reform is a process, not a destination. This is going to take YEARS to implement, and we are going to try things that aren't going to work, and things that are going to work. It needs to be built upon.
The other part of me rationalizes, that we need a complete teardown of the current delivery system. We need to hire a team of systems engineers to completely re-design it from the bottom up.
We owe it to our patients, and our future patients.
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