Health Care Reform Will Succeed This Time, Say Experts

By Laura Woodhead – Talk Radio News Service

America is ready for health care reform both socially and politically, health care professionals argued Wednesday. Speaking at a discussion on health care reform at the Campus Progress National Convention, the experts argued that the mood within the U.S. makes this year the perfect time to implement legislation, unlike 1993 when a variety of conflicting factors led to the defeat of President Bill Clinton’s health care plan.

Neera Tanden, Senior Adviser with the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Health Reform, said that the main difference between President Clinton’s and Obama’s health care plans was that, unlike the almost non discussion within the 1992 campaign over health care, there was a two year discussion on health care within President Obama’s campaign. This reportedly laid the groundwork for Congress to take action.

“The vigorous debate on health care [in the 2008 campaigns] is finally coming to fruition.” said Tanden, who was a senior policy adviser to Hilary Clinton when she was First Lady and the domestic policy director for President Obama’s presidential campaign.

“[The] debate is very different from 15 years ago” argued Tanden. “Groups who were aligned against health care reform [in 1993] now think it is going to happen, and they want to be part of it.”

Igor Volsky, a health care researcher and blogger for the Center for American Progress, noted that the advancement in new media since 1993 has made a significant difference in the health care reform debate.

He said that whereas conservative dissent over the Clinton health care plan “spread like wildfire” through newspaper editorials, the current new media structure, which consists of social networking sites and Twitter, has allowed supporters “to fight back and discredit it…to push up against the [dissenting] narrative.”

Volsky urged those present at the discussion to pressure their Congressmen and Senators to support health care reform.

“The cost of inaction is tremendous for our country and for our economy,” Volsky said.