The (March) Madness of Health Care

Two big news items are forefront in my mind today: March Madness and health care.

We are not the biggest of basketball fans around here and it definitely comes in third after baseball and football, but we love March Madness and the NCAA tournament. My sons run a family bracket in which the five of us and Wife's parents participate. I think Older Son's girlfriend has joined also. It's tons of fun but in the years we have done it, I don't think I have ever won. I also participate in one at work with the same results. I receive unmerciful grief from both fronts.

It looks like this year's tournament might include some surprises. Villanova, who I have all the way to the final four, had to go into overtime to beat some obscure team named Robert Morris yesterday. Old Dominion upset Notre Dame (I had that one). Georgetown got beat. And, especially of note around here, Murray State beat Vanderbilt!

I am hanging on with my bracket right now but, as one of my friends at work has said, I am sure it will soon begin its "inevitable collapse!"

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I have written here previously about health care. But for the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, the health care reform legislation would have passed soon after the first of the year.

Here is my prediction: it will still pass. It's going to be close but I believe the president will prevail upon his Democratic brethren to get it done.

I will still be ambivalent no matter the outcome. And so will a lot of folks. This is a much watered-down version of the original incarnation and, although the likes of Nancy Pelosi will be grinning like cheshire cats, assuring us of what a historic victory this is (and taking the credit for it), this is NOT what they, nor the president, envisioned. Although there will be some big changes, the public option at one time was the non-negotiable centerpiece. And now it is no more.

Readers here will remember that I have conflicting feelings over all of this (which is why, no matter the result, I'll have somewhat of a "ho-hum" response).

I don't believe health insurance companies, in business to make money like anyone else, are the villainous outfits that so many have made them out to be and against whom the president is declaring war in his last-minute populist stand to push through this legislation.

Neither do I think that those proponents of a seemingly more radical single-payer system are crazy extremists who have lost touch. We already have a form of this with Medicare and, although I don't think I could ever buy into it, in a way I can see the point of these folks better than what's now being proposed.

Nobody who has read my posts here could accuse me of being a closed-minded right winger about this. I am, however, unalterably and unapolegitically pro-life and believe that NO public funds should be used to cover abortions. As I read it, the proposal on the table will work that way. I hope I am right.

My chief regret today is that, somewhere along the way, this became less about health care and more about politics; more about how a representative's vote will play in his/her home state and whether he/she will be elected again and less about voting his/her conscience; and more about cutting deals to buy votes and less about coming up with the best reform possible for all.

And, perhaps saddest of all, it's become very much about a president -- who I believe to be a decent and sincere person -- scarcely a year into his first term, trying to protect his legacy.

They're saying we could have a vote by Sunday. Those arbitrary deadlines are often missed but, again, I believe something will pass soon. Stay tuned.

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One thing is certain. The March Madness happening right now is not just happening on the basketball courts.