Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, Princeton economist and NY Times columnist, gives all of us who are exhausted by the Health Care controversy great advice: PASS THE BILL!
Contradicting those liberals, such as Howard Dean, who say we should drop the legislation and start all over, Krugman points out that every major reform ever passed starts out as imperfect and gets better over time.
Passage of the bill would do the following:
1. Discrimination based on medical condition or history would be banned. Pre-existing condtions would no longer be a basis for rejection, and insurance could not be canceled when someone gets sick.
2. Substantial government aid to those who are not covered for health insurance at their work would be provided.
3. Small employers who provide health insurance for their employees would receive tax breaks.
4. Premiums for lower income and lower middle income workers would drop dramatically.
5. 30 million people not covered by health insurance would come under the umbrella of this legislation.
6. This would be the first strong effort to curb health care costs, which have been rising much faster than inflation.
To follow the leanings of Howard Dean and other far left liberals would mean giving the same advice as conservatives and the Republican party has been promoting all along. But if nothing is done now, then it is unlikely that anything will be accomplished in the remainder of the Obama Presidency, and very possibly, for the next generation or more.
To believe that the Democrats will have a bigger margin of seats in 2010 or beyond is certainly a utopian vision. The time for action, although imperfect and incomplete, is NOW!