Health Care Reform is like Watching Sausage Being Made

There's a popular saying in public policy circles and it goes something like this- Watching public policy being made or decided is like watching sausage being made. Its an ugly process filled with all kinds of questionable ingredients but in the end its hoped that it comes out tasting pretty good.

Well, health care reform sure has mirrored the process of making sausage. Let's hope what we get in the end is more Brat than wurst.

Here's a link to a New York Times story--

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/health/policy/07health.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

The article provides details on five individual senators and their widely different viewpoints/concerns on the Baucus Senate Bill that is getting the most attention and debate right now in the Senate Finance Committee. Four of these Senators are Democrats and Olympia Snowe is a Republican from Maine.

Legislation this huge and complex will definitely cause individual legislators, not to mention the American public, to have a wide variety of opinions on the legislation as a whole. Each individual Senator may also view the bill as having ten things they like and want and an equal number they cannot live with or vote for.

Below are excerpts from the article providing those Sentaors' individual concerns related to the bill.


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Sen. Rockefeller D- W.V. - he's upset that a health care bill poised for approval by the Finance Committee would turn nearly a half-trillion dollars over to insurance companies, whose profits he says are “out of sight.” He went on to say that, "It’s an imperfect bill, with a lot of pluses and minuses.”

Sen. Snowe R- Maine -- She worries that the bill would require people to buy insurance they cannot afford. Ms. Snowe’s views reflect the concerns of many centrist Democrats. She worries that some middle-income families will find insurance unaffordable, even with federal subsidies. And she wants to give the private insurance market an opportunity to work, under new federal rules, before setting up a government plan in states where affordable coverage proves unavailable.

Sen. Lincoln D- AR-- She fears that the bill would be too costly for the government.

Sen. Wyden D- OR -- He warns that the bill would lock many workers into health plans selected by their employers, without allowing them to shop for better, cheaper plans, an alternative that could help drive down costs for everyone. Wyden noted that the committee’s bill would not offer additional options to the overwhelming majority of Americans who already have insurance. His concern is shared by some Democrats and also by many Republicans, who say the bill does not do enough to let the marketplace spur competition.

Sen. Ben Nelson D- Nebraska, says he believes the "laboratories of democracy typically work,” -- it might make sense for states to act as a testing ground for a public option. Rockefeller said this approach was unacceptable to him. State health plans would not be strong enough to compete effectively with big private insurance companies, he said.