Many thought it couldn’t be done, but on March 21, Congress passed major healthcare reform legislation.
For those in favor, this is a victory like none other, a social change for America that will set the precedent that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
Before Democrats get too confident in their victory, they should remember that much of the reform isn’t going to take place for four years. That is a long time and some major elections away from now, with Republicans already vowing to repeal the law.
To those opposed, the new law represents a threat that big government may expand beyond Medicare and Medicaid to take over healthcare – and even America.
According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania’s FactCheck.org, the new law is not a government takeover of healthcare. “A pure government-run system was never among the leading Democratic proposals, much to the chagrin of single-payer advocates,” says FactCheck.org.
The last time a healthcare law passed with this much breadth was 45 years ago, with the establishment of Medicare. In 1961, Ronald Reagan – still decades away from become President – predicted that Medicare, if passed into law, would “invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country,” leaving Americans to wake up and find they have socialism.
Medicare seems to have grown popular on both sides of the aisle since then. In this year’s debate, Republicans defended Medicare and accused Democrats of threatening it.
Following passage of the bill last month, President Barack Obama said this is “what change looks like.”
As he works now to drum up public support for healthcare reform, Obama will likely meet some challenges. A bumper sticker I recently spotted said, “I’ll keep my freedom, my money and my guns – You keep the change.”
Democratic Party leaders have reported that 10 members of the House received death threats or threats to their property within three days of voting for healthcare reform. This kind of behavior seems more like our society is going backwards than forwards.
But if the past is any indicator of the future, disgruntled Americans will likely come to embrace the new change, like they did with Medicare.