After last night’s passage of Health Care Reform in the House of Representatives, we have been flooded with American views on and analyses of the good, the bad and the ugly of that historic bill.
But, what does the rest of the world say about it?
Germany’s Spiegel has a provocative piece this morning with the interesting title,” US Health Care — Good for America, Bad for the World.”
More interesting, the author, Gregor Peter Schmitz, says that “the most important reform America has seen in decades…may not be positive for the president himself.”
First, the “good for America.”
There is little doubt that the reform package, which guarantees health care coverage for 95 percent of Americans, is one for the history books. It was a scandal that the world’s richest country for so long offered its citizens such pitiful protection against illness or injury. It seems entirely possible that, in 10 years time, Americans will find it hard to believe that they didn’t always have the right to health insurance.
To tackle the proposition that it may not be positive for Obama himself, Schmitz refers to the “moral necessity” of the health care package—to eliminate the existential risks posed by illness or injury to more than 40 million Americans without coverage—as a fulfillment of Obama’s “first promise” with Obama winning the moral debate.
However, according to Schmitz, the “second promise” has been postponed: an economic promise to bring the cost of health care under control.
Here is where Schmitz worries about Obama’s and his party’s political prospects.
He believes that Obama is paying a high price for his moral victory because, for example, “Obama has failed to get a single Republican to back his health care reform and polls show that there is a deep public mistrust.” Schmitz also mentions Democrats’ concerns about their prospects for re-election, and that the health care debate is far from over.
An ongoing debate that will demand so much of the president’s time and attention as to have a negative impact on other initiatives and to make further successes “that much more doubtful.”
Finally, as to why Obama’s health care win is “bad for the world,” Schmitz poses:
Every other issue has become a sideshow, particularly those outside the borders of America. The Afghanistan mission: of marginal interest. Protecting the environment: postponed. Peace in the Middle East: off in the distance. Sanctions against Iran: delayed. Europe: not even worth a trip.
While it is true that many other issues, in particular cost and deficit issues, will continue to be at the forefront of health care reform, and while an unrelenting opposition will continue to hound this president every step of the way—still wanting him to fail; still wanting this to be his “Waterloo”—I have every confidence that he will continue to do just fine for himself, for his party, for the American people and for Europe and world peace.
After all, he just finished doing what so many thought was “impossible.” And now that he has accomplished the impossible, perhaps we can now, together—Democrats and Republicans—begin to tackle all those other “possible” tasks, such as the economy, unemployment, immigration, education, etc.
An interesting take on a historic American moment.
