A recent Zogby poll shows the majority of respondents (57%) think Congress should start over on health care reform and 56.4% think the approach should be step-by-step instead of comprehensive.
I’m with the majority. I’ve wondered for months why Congress insists on trying to pass a huge, all-things-to-all-people kind of bill, which is bound to include something for everyone to hate and is too massive for anyone to fully comprehend.
It’s crazy, if you ask me. Crazy in the same way the failed comprehensive immigration reform was crazy. In an effort to include everything, you succeed in getting nothing. Why not pass modest small stepwise bills addressing one or two issues at a time, the issues most people can agree on. A little progress, a piece at a time, is certainly better than no progress at all.
Break health care reform down into manageable pieces. Pass a law removing the anti-trust exemption being exploited by health insurance companies. Pass another prohibiting pre-existing condition exclusions. Pass yet another to do away with annual or lifetime limits on coverage. And for us old farts, how ’bout one closing the Medicare “doughnut hole.”
You know, use the old Charles Emerson Winchester approach: Do one thing at a time, do it very well, and then move on.
See? Even a character on MAS*H knew how to get things done right. Too bad he and his buddies aren’t running for Congress this year.
Progress from Congress?
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Bizarre idea, isn’t it?