Health Care Reform … Cure or Colonoscopy?
Words of the Day
“I find the medicine worse than the malady.” – John Fletcher, English dramatist
Health Care Reform Spin Cycle
With the stroke of a pen – make that 20 pens to dole out to his faithful party leaders – President Obama signed the landmark health care overhaul bill into law. Now that the most expansive government-run, social legislation in decades is the law of the land, with Uncle Sam playing doctor, the nation has a B-I-G, government subsidized, government taxed pill to swallow. A nearly $1 trillion pill!
WordSmith is breaking out into hives.
Following a festive, raucous ceremony – that at times seemed like a giant frat party, complete with an off-the-cuff-but-not-surprising F-bomb from the veep himself – the U.S. has been wheeled into Obamacare like a comatose patient into the E.R. Vice President Biden needs to take some serious media training from WordSmith! Biden – a lifelong inside-the-Beltway boy – should know that the mics are always on during photo ops!
Who knows what that prognosis of this political prescription will be, or how the patient will be resuscitated. One thing’s for sure, the big health care law with a big name, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is just the first step into the future of health care and medicine in the land of the brave and free.
Now, President Obama has to add a hefty dose of PR to the pill, er bill, er law. It’s still so confusing to WordSmith. Obama must continue to persuade a skeptical public that this is best for our country, amidst an economy that is anemic.
Under Obamacare, 95 percent of eligible Americans will have coverage, compared with 83 percent previously. The estimated price-tag … $940 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. So 83 percent of the country has been doing it right, and the Beltway pundits are overhauling the whole system?
Is this a cure or an unnecessary colonoscopy? Only time will tell.
So who will be affected? Everyone. For taxpayers – the uninsured, many with pre-existing conditions will get relief, and coverage. Others see higher taxes, more bureaucracy and runaway federal spending.
For hospitals and doctors, it’s a mixed prescription – hospitals like the measure and say it will help more patients pay their bills. Physicians argue they won’t be paid fairly.
The insurance industry took one spoonful of the measure, and promptly spit it out, predicting health premiums will rise, and that not enough was done to rein in health care costs.
Small business, the backbone of the country, and perhaps the most affected by health care reform, fear it will be hit with higher taxes and penalties to pay the multi-billion dollar bill over the next decade.
To make up for the lost revenue from the Niagara Falls of health benefits, there’s nowhere to turn but taxes. The new law applies an increased Medicare payroll tax to investment income and to wages of individuals making more than $200,000 or married couples above $250,000. The tax on investment income would be 3.8 percent. If the Senate follows through, it would impose a 40 percent tax on high-cost insurance plans above the threshold of $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. The tax would go into effect in 2018.
That’s a lot of tax talk that will enter the debate as President Obama tries to sway the court of public opinion. However, after the initial dose, opinions could be starting to tip. A USA Today/Gallup Poll taken after the historic health care vote, found Americans by 9 percentage points have a favorable view of the health care overhaul. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed now have a favorable opinion.
To be sure, the nation remains divided about the massive legislation, and the health care temperature continues to be as mercurial as a 24-hour virus on the day after.
While the Democrats exulted, Republicans describe the measure as big government run amok.
With the stroke of his pens, President Obama is writing a new chapter in health care reform. Despite the new law, this political basketball has more bounces that March Madness. The partisan tussle continues.
Attorneys general in more than a dozen states filed lawsuits contending that the measure is unconstitutional. In the Capitol, the Senate opened what is expected to be a contentious debate on a measure that contains the final revisions to the health bill.
Now, the White House has shifted into full campaign mode, and health care reform has hit a feverish sales pitch.
For Obama, the bill is indeed a big deal, as the loose-tongued Biden so articulately put it, and will surely define his presidency, along with the government bailout of the banking and auto industries.
And with Congress going home to many angry voters, the political rage is certainly not on recess! Lawmakers are arriving home this week to a charged atmosphere. Already, there have been reports of threats and violence across the country – including in Nashville, where a teacher’s car was rammed off the road by a driver upset over his Obama bumper sticker. The health care rage, and the political discourse in this country must recover.
Health care – and the health of our country – is very much on the minds of everyone, and President Obama and our lawmakers have successfully made it the top news of the day. There is no doubt that the current health care system needs reforming – the debate lies in what the prescription is! The biggest social and economic program since the Great Depression is getting the publicity it deserves, and for that, the Golden Mic goes to the Obama White House. Stay tuned to see if the message makes positive, lasting change, or whether it’s a poor diagnosis that keeps the economy in the hospital!
Golden Mic
Each week, Wordsmith will bestow a Golden Mic Award to the person, group or company in the court of public opinion that best exemplifies the tenets of solid PR, marketing and advertising – and those who don’t. Stay tuned … and step-up to the mic!
The WordSmith News Bureau is based at Deane Smith Media Innovations, a full-service PR, marketing and advertising agency. Got PR? Need marketing strategy? Ad consulting? Message Wordsmithing? Creative & online initiatives? Reach the WordSmith at wordsmith@deanesmithmedia.com