I have a great deal of respect for Paul Krugman, which is more than I can say for the Obama Administration; I feel they are missing out on a fantastic opportunity to utilize the services of one of the finest economic minds this country has.

I am not as well versed in the economic impact of ANYTHING as Krugman is, so I have to defer to him on all such issues. And today, Krugman says “pass the so-called health reform bill now, and punish the DINOs later.”

Maybe Krugman is right. He is certainly right with his observations about how legislation evolves, and I’ve considered this to some degree already.

A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy. Declare that you’re disappointed in and/or disgusted with President Obama. Demand a change in Senate rules that, combined with the Republican strategy of total obstructionism, are in the process of making America ungovernable.

But meanwhile, pass the health care bill.

Yes, the filibuster-imposed need to get votes from “centrist” senators has led to a bill that falls a long way short of ideal. Worse, some of those senators seem motivated largely by a desire to protect the interests of insurance companies — with the possible exception of Mr. Lieberman, who seems motivated by sheer spite.

But let’s all take a deep breath, and consider just how much good this bill would do, if passed — and how much better it would be than anything that seemed possible just a few years ago. With all its flaws, the Senate health bill would be the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare, greatly improving the lives of millions. Getting this bill would be much, much better than watching health care reform fail.

At its core, the bill would do two things. First, it would prohibit discrimination by insurance companies on the basis of medical condition or history: Americans could no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, or have their insurance canceled when they get sick. Second, the bill would provide substantial financial aid to those who don’t get insurance through their employers, as well as tax breaks for small employers that do provide insurance.

All of this would be paid for in large part with the first serious effort ever to rein in rising health care costs.

The result would be a huge increase in the availability and affordability of health insurance, with more than 30 million Americans gaining coverage, and premiums for lower-income and lower-middle-income Americans falling dramatically. That’s an immense change from where we were just a few years ago: remember, not long ago the Bush administration and its allies in Congress successfully blocked even a modest expansion of health care for children.

Bear in mind also the lessons of history: social insurance programs tend to start out highly imperfect and incomplete, but get better and more comprehensive as the years go by. Thus Social Security originally had huge gaps in coverage — and a majority of African-Americans, in particular, fell through those gaps. But it was improved over time, and it’s now the bedrock of retirement stability for the vast majority of Americans.

As I said, this guy knows his stuff. If he says this should pass, then maybe we should hold our noses and support passage.

Krugman is probably a better economist than Howard Dean is a Doctor (with absolutely no disrespect meant to Dr. Dean.) Krugman’s opinions certainly have to be given serious weight in the debate over this bill. Perhaps later, we can elect a Dean to make it right.

Tags: healthcare reform, krugman

This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Healthcare Crisis, Jolly Roger. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.