Some of my readers have asked me to comment on the recent passage of the Health Reform Act. Or as Obama says, "the Health Insurance Reform Act". Duffy, frankly was pretty astounded seeing what transpired in the last month with passage of this act. The Democrats, seemingly oblivious to the American public's majority rejection of this bill, used every parliamentary trick they could devise and in the end, outright intimidation of their own members to jam this 2,500 page bill through Congress without a single Republican vote. President Obama took a huge gamble that he could get the bill passed. If failure, then his presidency was for all intents and purposes finished with more than 2 1/2 years to go. Looked at it that way, it is no wonder that Obama and Pelosi had to have a win if they hoped to enact anything of significance during his term. In a larger context a loss would have diminished Obama's standing in the world as an insignificant weak leader which would have negative effects on our foreign policy.
However, Duffy feels that the whole sordid process watched carefully by the American people over how this legislation was put together and what it took to get passed likely poisoned Obama to a large, majority of the electorate that will come back in spades on the first Tuesday in November.
Unfortunately for Obama a large part of the "good" aspects of this bill will not come into effect for 2-3-4 years while many of the "bad" aspects will start to be felt immediately. Contrary to what many of the supporters have been led to believe, medical costs and insurance premiums will not come down. Insurance companies will still raise rates and decline people. Doctors and hospitals will not lower rates. People will still experience delays, waits and confusion dealing with the medical establishment. Your taxes, directly and indirectly, will start to go up when "cost savings" fail to materialize. Dealing with medical providers will get even more confusing as they now have to conform to hundreds of new federal guidelines and mandates. There will be fewer insurance companies and more of them will pull out of certain markets. As more and more people believe they are entitled to coverage doctors and hospitals will be swamped with demand and it will take even longer to get in to see your doctor. More doctors will quit or retire. Expect to see even more foreign born and trained medical personnel working in hospitals. A lot of people working for the insurance industry will be laid off thereby increasing the unemployment rate. Your drugs will cost more. The only growth area that will be seen in the next few years will be growth in federal bureaucrats hired to enforce the regulations. The IRS has funding to hire up to 14,000 more employees to ensure that all taxpayers are required to have health insurance.
In short, just like the so called "stimulus package" that has done very little to stimulate the economy, after a while, the American people will come to realize that a lot more was offered than will be delivered.
However, Duffy doesn't mean to diminish this achievement. Universal health care is now the law of the land. Despite what the Republicans say, it will not be repealed. Parts of it are good and should be retained. It won't go awayand the future of the Republican Party will depend on how effective they are in fixing the bad parts of the bill, and they are many, and improving the good parts. This will take at least two elections, 2010 and 2012 to start the process. Duffy thinks the Democrats sealed their fate with this bill come November. You can bet the Republicans will go through every page of this bill to pick out the many harmful parts that in many instances have little or nothing to do with "health reform" or intrude the federal government even more into ordinary Americans lives.
This bill is seen rightly by the majority of the American people as embodying the Democratic ideal of State control of people's lives as opposed to the Republican ideal of individualism and liberty. Obama, for some reason, seems to think that he can, by the force of his will, force the people to bend to his goals whereas in reality the people in this country are tending to be more and more conservative. This blindness on Obama's part will cost his party dearly in November and his job in 2012.
