Anticipation…

So what are we looking for from our President’s comments on health care reform this evening?

Will he take on the lies of the right-wing nay-sayers?

Will he capitulate to those who want him to tax health insurance provided by employers?

Will he reassure small businesses that they won't be forced out of business by a requirement for provision of health insurance to employees because there will be affordable options - guaranteed?

Will he specify each and every component he wants to see passed?

Will he explain dollar by dollar how we’ll save money with the reform he’s looking for?

Will he give up important components, like ensuring that EVERYONE is covered?

Will he endorse the Senator from Oregon’s plan to allow an employee to take cash instead of employer coverage, and use the cash to get a plan he prefers?

Will he finally “make it plain” – that without a public option, there’s nothing that will compel private insurance companies to cut premiums by cutting overhead?

Will he show us charts and graphics that demonstrate that we can cut costs by cutting back on unnecessary tests and procedures, but still provide the “best health care in the world”?

Will he back off his time-table, bowing to the notion that 40 years of watching the wheels fall off our health care wagon requires us to spend the next 40 years figuring out what to do about it?

We’ve heard various “experts” insist that some combination of these answers are absolutely essential tonight if the President wants to get his health care reform back on track.

Whatever President Obama tells us this evening, one thing is certain: we’ll all be listening with bated breath. This may be the single most important issue we are facing these days. It is literally life and death for many of us. It could be life and death for our economy, too.

We've started seeing ads purporting to support health care reform sponsored by America's Health Insurance Plans, and Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America. They are surprisingly vague, don't you think? No actual proposals, just the notion that everyone should get coverage, somehow. Oh, with no pre-existing condition exceptions. Somehow.

Polls are showing that public approval for the President’s health care reform proposals is fading, slipping below 50%. Most media pundits are presenting that statistic as if people don’t want to reform our health care system anymore.

But I’d bet dollars to donuts that any slippage is because we want MORE from this reform effort, not less. We don’t approve of the way the Democrats backed away from universal coverage and single payer plans; of the deference paid to those mega-profitable insurance companies; of kowtowing to the elitist American Medical Association; of the sucking-up to PhRMA; of trying to protect Senators and Congresspersons who take millions and millions of dollars from the aforementioned groups.

This blog hasn’t earned an advance copy of the President’s remarks, so we’ll be watching with you. More comments following the press conference.

Jacque