Health Reform

I have a confession to make: I'm burnt out on health reform. I know, it's terrible since I'm getting a PhD on the politics of health services. I don't know everything about health policy, but I know enough to realize that the debate has been twisted and distorted tremendously by both sides. What a complex issue! Suddenly, health reform turned into a debate about abortion; what a mess. I'm also hoping that we can finally put to rest the idea that health reform is a government takeover, that is a real big stretch.

As you have probably heard, 60 Senators have supposedly agreed to support health reform (the cloture vote is tonight at 1am). Although a major breakthrough, there are still many hurdles that have to be passed before a passed bill arrives on Obama's desk. The biggest question will be what compromises will come out of the conference bill between the Senate and the House. Does anyone know if the conference bill needs 60 votes as well, or is that step automatically skipped?

Although I'm a bit burnt out, I will be really interested to see what happens at this point. I don't know enough of the details to know whether I would prefer the House version (which includes a public option plan) or the Senate version (which doesn't include a public option, but does include an opportunity to buy into a privately run plan that is monitored by the same people who monitor the plan for federal employees). Either one seems fine to me.

Have you read David Brooks' latest column on health reform? I think it's one of the most balanced (brief) discussions I've seen. I agree with a rebuttal I read elsewhere that his arguments against reform aren't really that strong, but I still think people have some legitimate concerns.