Healthcare Reform??

Two things about the continuing healthcare reform circus.

First -- now that the Democrats have conceded a public option AND have given up on the expanded Medicade proposal -- their is a HUGE branding question on the table:

What is this thing?

The idea that every person in America would have access to quality, affordable healthcare was an easy message to digest -- easily brand-able - and a lot of people bought into the notion.

Now that this thing has morphed into what many people are viewing as nothing more than an ideological debate (as opposed to real reform) it's done two things --
1. Bled away a lot of support both from the right AND the left
2. Demonstrated clearly to voters how screwed up Washington is.

Prior to this - public polling indicated a waning approval for this legislation anyway -- that was mostly spurred by the "big government is taking over" crowd and an overall lack of trust in the federal governments ability to actually create and manage a system of any worth. Now that the most well "branded" aspects of the plan have been blown up, we're starting to see erosion in support from voters on the left as well.

I don't see that public support coming back anytime soon because there simply isn't enough time to explain to the public why this bill is a good thing if it's not going to do what it was originally intended to do -- provide healthcare to every American.

Now don't get me wrong -- I don't actually believe that the bill needs public support to pass -- and that brings us to the second part of this line of thinking:

If a bill passes that does not provide healthcare to all Americans --- and is not even understood by most Americans --- then:

- Voters on the right will feel that they were railroaded by a liberal congress into a bad bill that increases the size of government -- it's a government takeover of 1/3 of the economy.

- Voters on the left will feel that they were railroaded by a weak congress that was bullied around by the far right minority. This bill isn't real reform but rather a watered down version of change that amounts to little more than politics as usual -- protecting the massive health insurance lobby and the donation dollars that go along with it.

In other words -- this bill is now a political (at least a political marketing) albatross.

No good can come from it.