Persuasive Essay On Health Care Reform

After the world war two, nearly every president —Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton—had tried to overhaul the nation’s health system. Every time reformers have to faced lots of obstacles, including fierce opposition from stakeholders such as the American Medical Association, business, and the insurance industry. Fragmented political institutions that made passing health care legislation, even when a president’s party controlled Congress, exceedingly difficult and Americans’ skepticism about government, which enabled opponents to scare the public with the specter of socialized medicine and tales of horrors in foreign health systems. Only Lyndon Johnson, was successful with the 1965 enactment of Medicare and Medicaid.

But, still enacting health care reform was challenging for president Obama. In the Senate Majority leader Reid, and in the House, Speaker Pelosi, helped President Obama to overcome the Partisan Pressures. The Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter switched parties in August 2009.Thus, Democrats got the crucial supermajority of sixty necessary to overcome a Senate filibuster. In the Senate, with no Republican support, Majority Leader Reid would have to hold onto all sixty members of the Democratic caucus—including independent Joe Lieberman (CT) and conservative Democrats such as Ben Nelson (NE).(6) In the House, Speaker Pelosi work hard to balance the competing demands of moderate Blue Dog and liberal Progressive Caucus members. She also worked to find a way to win over anti-abortion Democrats who would not back legislation without restrictions on federal abortion funding abhorred by pro-choice House members. (6) Obama administration had to face shortfalls and distrust. In 2009, the worst economic downturn leads reformers to face a soaring federal budget deficit. Without making this federal budget deficit worse, Democrats would have to meet the Congressional Budget Office demands. They have to generate enough savings to pay for expanding coverage—with a $1 trillion price tag. Then, there was another major hurdle in the form of unsupportive