Health Reform, Climate Change, a Rock and a Hard Place

by David Chavern
 
It should not be a surprise to anyone that health care reform and energy/carbon legislation are running into significant political headwinds on the Hill.  A recent piece by Michael Barone makes the case that Americans are getting "cold feet" over major legislation in these areas.  I think it is more accurate to say that the public is "waking-up" to the real impact of this legislation – since, to date, they have been sold a bill of goods by politicians who have been flatly unwilling to talk about costs and trade-offs of complex reform.

Here is what the public has consistently been told about health care: (i) everyone can "keep what they have" (since 83% of people with insurance are satisfied with it), (ii) tens of millions of additional people will be given comprehensive health coverage, (iii) there will be no "rationing", so everyone will get access to everything all the time, and (iv) it won't cost you anything – in fact your cost of insurance should go down.  Oh yes, and as the Director of OMB noted, the health care reform legislation will be "budget neutral."  The bad guys in this fantasy story are insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and business generally.

How about energy/carbon legislation?  Here the story has been: (i) there is an immediate global crisis that requires massive action, (ii) there are readily available energy alternatives, and (iii) moving to these alternatives won't cost you an extra dime. In fact, we need to "bring down" the cost of gasoline.  The bad guys here are oil companies, electric utilities and, oh yes, business generally.

With these arguments being repeatedly spewed forth by the political class in town, one shouldn't be surprised that the public gets "cold feet" when the rubber hits the legislative road and people start to realize that there is no free lunch. None of these promised components of reform can be delivered by the Hill – and all of it would cost the American public (and their children and grandchildren, etc.) many trillions of borrowed dollars.  Hopefully, the nasty counter-reaction from the public will serve to stop the current health care and energy/carbon reform efforts in their tracks. While business would certainly get blamed for such an outcome, the truth is that the real bad guys would be the politicians who have been unwilling to be clear and honest about what real reform means.

But there would, unfortunately, also be a major downside to any delay in reform.  America really, really needs smart health care reform (that actually does expand coverage and reduce costs) and energy legislation (that lowers energy costs, expands security and addresses carbon). Kicking the can once again won't improve the competitiveness of our economy. What we need is a giant political Reset Button with the public where we take the discussion back to an honest discussion of costs and benefits, and a clear understanding that business isn't the problem.  In fact, it has to be a very large part of the solution.

Comments

[Frank Polun]

I have been a member of our local chamber for 23 years. If it supports the US Chamber's position opposing the health care reform effort now before congress, I will quit for good.

We must have relief now. The bill must be passed immediately