DC Summer Camp

The early summer was unusual here in your nation's capital. A cool and very rainy Spring, which made even the gardens of those with not-very-green thumbs, like me, colorful and vibrant. June and July were cool dry, lacking the swampiness that is among the lasting memories for the numerous tourists in town for summer vacation. For the few DC residents who haven't fled to beach or mountains, the joys of cool mornings, warm, dry evenings, fewer cars on the road and easy access to restaurants, lead one to dream...can Congress actually pass health care reform?

We were woken from this dream, thrown out of our hammocks and brought back to reality when August arrived. 90's and humid, every day. And...Congress fails to finish work on health care reform bills and leaves for the month-long "district work period."

Health care is an easy issue to demagogue - remember those "Harry and Louise" ads opposing President Clinton's health care reform efforts (btw - Harry and Louise are back on, in FAVOR of health reform). And of course, the ranting about "socialized medicine," and "European-style health care." Polls suggest that many Americans are concerned about the state of the health care system, but all this propaganda is aimed at scaring the public into supporting the status quo.

I believe that the Administration has done a weak job of communicating with the public, especially those who HAVE decent health insurance, why they should support change. NBC's Chuck Todd commented about a recent the President's performance at a recent AARP town hall on health care, "Perhaps the biggest thing that stood out to us at President Obama’s AARP town hall yesterday was that the White House appears to be losing the message war on health care. How do we know? Just listen to the questions the AARP callers had. Several of them asked about "rumors,” and they also brought up GOP talking points on "rationing" or the government coming to your house to ask how you want to die (!!!)." (http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/07/29/2013177.aspx).

My glumness about the sad state of this effort suddenly turned to hope with an opinion piece by Kathleen Sebilius (Health and Human Services Secretary) in the August 4 Washington Post. Among her points, she said, "The current health-care system gives insurance companies all the power. They get to pick and choose who gets a policy. They can deny coverage because of a preexisting condition. They can offer coverage only at exorbitant rates -- or offer coverage so thin that it's no coverage at all. Americans are left to worry about whether they'll get laid off and lose their insurance or wake up from surgery with a $10,000 bill because they didn't read the fine print on their policy." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/03/AR2009080302223.html) You go Kathleen.

I hope that the President and his team will use August to communicate with Americans about what the real implications are of inaction, how the different proposals in Congress will effect them and that doing nothing is not an option.

It shouldn't be hard to get our attention. He's competing with reruns!
-craig