Do Dems Have Courage of Convictions?

Ron Brownstein asks the question of the moment regarding health care reform and more in The National Journal.

After Obama's release this week of a plan that mostly tracks the Senate approach to reform, Democrats are completing a proposal that would expand insurance coverage and combat waste in a largely centrist manner. Their emerging plan broadly resembles the Republican alternative to President Clinton's 1993 health plan, the proposal that Republican Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts when he was governor, and the blueprint that former Republican Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Howard Baker endorsed last summer. Obama unwisely retreated on taxing high-cost insurance plans, but his proposal still embraces most of the major ideas that reformers have offered to tame rising costs.

Although Democrats arguably should implement those ideas faster -- or bolster them with stronger protections against excessive medical malpractice claims -- the Senate bill reallocates resources in the health care system effectively enough that the independent Medicare actuary has estimated that the measure would cover 33 million more people by 2019 while increasing total health care spending by less than a penny on the dollar. It's not perfect, but the plan does provide a solid foundation for a more equitable and efficient health system.

With President Obama's bipartisan summit behind them, the remaining question facing Democrats on health care is straightforward: Do they have the courage of their convictions?

--Ballard Burgher