Still Stuck

(updated - Wed. March 30th)

The state of Massachusetts has demonstrated a healthcare reform that worked, and this concept was used to create our nation's current healthcare system. Obamacare was in fact inspired and based off of the healthcare reform that occurred in Massachusetts, when Mitt Romney was Governor. The idea that a Democratic national health care reform is based off of a Republican’s state healthcare reform is in fact extremely comical, especially since Romney and Obama ran head to head in the 2012 presidential election. Reid contradicts himself saying that one of America’s states should take charge and have the rest of America follow. But, we have done this with Obamacare and yet, Reid still says it’s not enough, which I completely agree with. America has utilized a demonstration model and it didn't work.

“Universal health care coverage doesn’t have to start at the national level” (Reid, 142). If there’s one thing we can learn from Canada, it’s that one person can start a movement and transform our healthcare. Tommy Douglas established free hospital care in a poor rural province and made it work. He established his taxpayer-funded Medicare system to pay all medical bills in the province, and the demonstration effect quickly turned Saskatchewan’s idea into a national health care system that covers everybody. Reid goes on to explain that if one of America’s fifty States were to try the same thing and make it work, the demonstration effect could spread across the United States. However, this has been done with Obamacare and it was not nearly as successful as Canada.

Obamacare is 406,887 words long and so broad that most members of Congress didn’t know precisely what was in it when they voted for or against the bill. Obamacare is simply put, extensive and confusing. It’s difficult for Americans to truly understand, let alone Congress understand. It is a step in the right direction, but once more when you compare us with our counterparts it is easily defeated in success.

President Obama “points to the success of Massachusetts’ health reform as evidence that, despite a rocky start, the law will work to provide near universal coverage to the citizens of the nation” (http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/11/13/romneycare-vs-obamacare-key-similarities-differences/). In Massachusetts, “Romneycare,” was enacted in 2006 and prior to the law, more than seven percent of Massachusetts residents lacked health insurance. According to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation’s 2011 five-year progress report on the Massachusetts reform the percent of uninsured in the state had dropped to less than two percent. During the same period, the average rate of uninsured in the nation rose to more than 16 percent. It worked in Massachusetts, so if we followed Reid’s advice, then America should look to that state and follow their lead, and thus it will be successful, right? Not so much.

Obamacare is definitely a step towards the right direction because it at least admits that every person in America should have a right to be healthy. However, the United States still has the most complicated, the most expensive, and the most inequitable health care system of any developed nation. Obamacare allows for universal health care, but it does not give coverage at a reasonable cost for the most part. There is still so much for America to learn from, and as Reid suggests me must look towards other developed countries with more successful healthcare systems. But, we have tried Canada’s demonstration technique with Massachusetts for Obamacare. What makes Reid think that America will succeed if we look to our counterparts?

In reality, America is vastly different from our counterparts who mostly reside in Europe. Our cultures are so very different, down to the fact that Americans are huge consumerists, while many Europeans get by with minimal amounts of “stuff.” Healthcare is difficult. It’s difficult for everyone, and I can truly say that it’s going to take one amazing idea to make our country have good healthcare, and I’m positive we haven’t found it yet.