[Health] Americans Want National Healthcare, So Why the Delay?

A New York Times/CBS poll released late last week shows that healthcare is the top domestic priority for more Americns, moreso than any other issue, including illegal immigration. And yesterday, a New York Times article revealed that a growing number, now 17 million of the 47 million uninsured citizens, come from middle class households earning over $40,000 a year, not poor households. The woman mentioned in the article, Vicki Readling, a real estate agent earning $60,000 dollars a year, who had cancer, found that when her individual policy expired at the beginning of this year she would be able to get coverage for no cheaper than $27,000 a year. So why are Congress and our president sitting idly by and doing nothing about it?

For Democrats seeking the White House in 2008 this has become a hot button issue, with several of them promising to implement a national plan to cover all Americans by the end of their first term. However, the Democratically-controlled Congress does not seem to be making healthcare a priority for its term, which is a bit bothersome. More bothersome though is the president's disregard for the issue that weighs most heavily on the domestic concerns of most Americans.

So why so much delay in addressing the people's demands? Of course we all know why.

For the Bush administration, I am sure it is the politics of cronyism and the interests of the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies that keep the president from calling for real change. No surprise there. But my concern on the part of the Democrats is that they do not want to address the issue in Congress so that they can use it to grab the White House in '08. That should not be happening.

Americans want healthcare and are willing to give tax dollars for it (despite the fact that our government already spends more per capita on health care initiatives than any developed country, all of whom have national plans). Congress should act now and begin negotiating policy and drafting a bill that can bring healthcare to the millions of Americans living in fear without it. The worst that could happen: the president signs sweeping healthcare reforms in a show of bipartisanship, affording the millions of uninsured access to healthcare. I can think of a lot worse things for America.