OBAMA JUST GIVING UP ON HEALTHCARE REFORM

August 17 2009

Washington, D.C. – For decades the issue of health care has dominated the American political landscape. Since the birth of the HMO system under the Nixon administration the discrepancy between care for different classes of Americans has
been one of the most vocal and violent debates in the country. With that issue the centre point of Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign it has become one of the most important pieces of the new administration’s agenda and one that has engendered the same kind of response that it has for so many years.

It is in the face of that opposition, both from the political and public realm, that the Obama Administration seems ready to fold in their desire to ensure health care for all Americans. With the proclamation from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that the government is now willing to drop the public option for health care it appears to many observers that Obama is hedging his bets and very carefully throwing in the towel on what was to be his greatest political triumph. Though still far from dead the abandonment of the most fundamental change in the President’s bill have many wondering if he is just giving up on the whole idea entirely.

“I think there will be a competitor to private insurers. That's really the essential part, is you don't turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing,” said Sebelius to CNN. “The government alternative to private health insurance is not the essential element of the administration's health care overhaul. I think what's important is choice and competition, and I'm convinced at the end of the day, the plan will have both of those.”

The United States has over 50 million people without any kind of health insurance and scores more chronically uninsured.  Previous attempts to overhaul the system have long been met with opposition, particularly when it comes to the issue of public monies being used.

“It’s a little early to say but it appears as though the President is starting to look for a way out of the mess he has wandered into. By talking up the idea of dropping the
public option they are able to walk a line and thus able to go either way. If a discussion of co-ops proves successful they will allow the legislation to pass, if it doesn’t they can show they were willing to negotiate and others killed the bill. It could also be that he’s just throwing his hands up in frustration,” said Scrape TV Political analyst Gabriel Kinsey. “Typically Presidents don’t give up until the second or third year of their second term. By that point the country will have either swayed their way or in the opposite direction so the next election has been decided plus their legacy has been established, they just kind of phase out by that time. Six months into the first term is a little early to be giving up the ghost but each person is different.”

Obama has made various trips abroad and met with a handful of foreign dignitaries in his short time in office but has thus far succeeded in very few initiatives.

“It could be that he needs a vacation. By this time in his presidency George Bush had already put in a couple months at the ranch in Texas. Taking all that time off proved to be very useful for his long term success and his tenacity in certain unpopular initiatives. Obama feels things very passionately and so failure can hit him hard. Maybe he just needs a few days away from things,” continued Kinsey. “He does have a long way to go in this job so it would be beneficial to take it a little easy to ensure that he will have the stamina for the long haul. Being President after all isn’t like being Governor of Alaska. You have real responsibility and have to stick with the job until it’s done.”

Reportedly advisors to the President have been urging him to take it a little easy, reminding him that unless the health care bill passes he himself will have limited options to alleviate stress related health issues.

Edward Bastil, Political Correspondent

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