Health Care Reform For Real This Time?
May 4th, 2009 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: Politics & PolicyThis might sound like a peculiar thing to say after all this time but it’s beginning to look like the Senate may finally be ready to get serious about health care reform. As might have been expected, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has been holding a series of hearings to examine various aspects of the problem. Interestingly, the Senate Finance Committee has also been working on this issue. Meanwhile, President Obama has also indicated that he really wants Congress to tackle this one this year. And, since the Obama Administration seems determined to go down in history as The Administration That Has A Web Site For Everything, it should come as no surprise that there is a web site dedicated to health care reform, unsurprisingly called HealthReform.gov.
Late last month, the White House turned its health reform minded eyes toward small businesses, convening a relatively small meeting of approximately fifteen attendees, including representatives of small business groups and actual small business owners, to share their views and insights. The resulting “report” contains no surprises or startling revelations or even any new ideas. On the other hand, there is a single, glaring omission: there is not one single word anywhere on this page about the self-employed. Of course, it is possible that Nancy-Ann Deparle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, intends to look into the matter at a later date. Unfortunately, history makes it difficult to be optimistic. It is much more likely that the self-employed are poised to fall through the cracks — again.
