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Syzygy

By Nick Sifuentes - Nov 21st, 2008 at 10:38 am

Not only is it an awesome word that I never get to use, but it also describes the current state of the healthcare debate. Watch the stars align for universal health care:

1. Sen. Max Baucus announced his healthcare proposal, which essentially calls for universal coverage.

2. Word has it that Ted Kennedy is returning to the Senate in January, where he will lead on health care from his perch on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Kennedy has asked Hillary Clinton to lead the health care are fight, which she theoretically can do if she actually returns to the Senate. This, of course, appears unlikely, but signals a seriousness among the stars of the Senate to sign on to significant health care reform.

3. Rahm Emanuel recently said that the administration will go for broke on health care:

[Emanuel] stressed that the new administration would “throw long and deep,” taking advantage of the economic crisis to push wholesale changes in health care, taxes, financial re-regulation and energy. “The American people in two successive elections have voted for change, and change cannot be allowed to die on the doorsteps of Washington,” Mr. Emanuel said.

4. Significant favorable news coverage is being paid to the cause, including this front-page article from the Los Angeles Times, which repudiates recent conventional wisdom that the recession called for decreases in government spending:

But the bleak environment may paradoxically spur the kind of costly, sweeping overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system that has eluded policymakers in Washington for decades, many political strategists, industry leaders and economists say.

In addition, formerly opposed groups are now supporting substantial reform:

“Healthcare reform is very much linked to the broader economic issues that the country is facing,” said Todd Stottlemyer, president of the National Federation of Independent Business. “Our view is that there is the energy now to make this a top priority.”

Fifteen years ago, the federation, which represents about 300,000 small businesses, helped fight the Clinton administration’s proposed healthcare overhaul. Today, it is one of the leading champions of broad-based reform.

“I have never seen an effort like this,” said Ron Pollack, who heads Families USA, a nonprofit consumer group promoting a healthcare overhaul.

Another example that media coverage is shifting is that, rather than reaching out to the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute for the obligatory money quote from a major think tank, the author of the Times piece instead cites the Center For American Progress’s own Karen Davenport:

“People are unhappy with today’s healthcare system,” said Karen Davenport, director of health policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank with close ties to Obama. “But they are also nervous about letting go of what they have now.”

5. Obama has chosen Tom Daschle as Secretary for Health and Human Services, which Ezra Klein points out means that Obama has chosen a guru of Senate machinations rather than someone with health administration experience to lead the department. Klein believes this strongly suggests Obama sees the health care fight as primarily a legislative battle rather than a departmental one, and he marshaled his resources accordingly.

6. Most shockingly of all, even the insurance companies are lining up! Matt Yglesias points out that the insurance companies are doing the “heavy lifting” on mandates–all Obama has to do is say, “Hey, the insurance companies insist on universal coverage in return for a guarantee that they’ll end discrimination on the basis of pre-existing conditions” and voila! A key piece of health care reform falls into place all by itself.

Given the mounting support for systemic reform, I’m banking on signed bill, and probably a pretty solid one at that, by January 2010.  Anyone want to start a betting pool?

Tags: Barack Obama, health, health care, inequality, politics, Rahm Emanuel