Top 10 Lessons from the Healthcare Reform War

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/4843/top_10_lessons_so_far_from_2009_healthcare_reform_war/

Sunday September 6 8:59 am

Labor Day will kick off the final and probably decisive stage of the fight for healthcare reform in 2009.

Hundreds of thousands of labor folks have gathered at Labor Day marches and rallies across the nation to scream their demand for fundamental healthcare reform. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has another 500 pro-reform events planned.

It's great to see all this action now, but it may be too little too late. The Right and Republicans successfully used the August town hall meetings to distort the debate. They shamelessly disseminated absurd yet memorably vivid lies (e.g. "death panels," socialized healthcare, etc.) to scare senior citizens and to manipulate mainstream media.


Randall Terry (R), founder of the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue, shouts as he is confronted by a supporter of healthcare reform during a town hall meeting in Reston, Virginia in August. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)


With labor and progressives' capacity to turn out millions, the Right should have never been able to seize the initiative.

As we draw closer to the critical stage of the healthcare, allow me to offer my Top 10 lessons we have learned thus far, and need to act on in the coming weeks.

10. The gutting or defeat of healthcare reform will prove fatal to Democrats in 2010. After the Clinton administration rammed through job-exporting NAFTA and then failed to win passage of healthcare reform, demoralized and disoriented Democratic-leaning voters stayed home. The drop in turnout among these voters allowed the Gingrich-led takeover of Congress in 1994. This time around, with the health crisis growing more desperate, people are counting on the Democrats to deliver on their promise. And if the Dems don't deliver, they will pay.

One danger is producing a plan that reinforces the evils of the current system. Comparing the failing Massachusetts "reform" plan and current Democratic proposals, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler of Harvard Medical School sees the same mandates to buy private insurance, unaffordable premiums, high deductibles, and large numbers of uninsured. "It's Massachusetts writ large," she told me for a forthcoming Z magazine article.

FULL story at link.

[Turbineguy]

1. The War

for health care.

Let's not make anything easy.