The new third rail in politics

Over the course of the next 18 months, as the next presidential and congressional campaigns first unfold and then reach a fever pitch, one thing is certain — there will be yet another national debate on healthcare reform. And once again it is one the proponents of healthcare reform and the Affordable Care Act are going to win.

In part we will win because the act is already working. Right now 4 million small businesses are eligible for tax credits to help pay for healthcare for their employees. Four million seniors have already received financial help to pay for their prescription drugs. 1.2 million young adults have health insurance only because the Affordable Care Act allows them to stay on their parents’ health plan instead of losing their coverage as soon as they graduate from college. And we can rest easily knowing that no child in this country will be denied health insurance because he or she is fighting an illness at a young age.

{mosads}But we will also win because the American people increasingly understand that opponents have no real alternative to the unsustainable path that healthcare costs, access and quality are on today. Costs now exceed $8,500 in taxes, premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for every man, woman and child in America. But those costs will double if we do nothing. Fifty-one million Americans have no health insurance today, and that number will grow to 64 million by the end of this decade if we sit idly by while coverage becomes even more unaffordable. And the quality of the healthcare we receive today in many respects continues to get worse, not better. The report by the Health and Human Services inspector general last November said it with an exclamation point. Every month 134,000 Medicare beneficiaries experience serious harm in hospitals and clinics and 15,000 people die. And, according to the IG, what is tragic is that 44 percent of these adverse events are preventable.

The country remains deeply divided on healthcare reform today.

The debate is largely one over the role of government, and is not unlike the debates our country has had for nearly a century when it comes to healthcare. 

Yet, with each debate the American people have embraced a larger, not smaller, governmental role on virtually every occasion. When presented with accurate and truthful information, they understand that failure to act now will place us in an untenable predicament.

There are three things that those of us who are enthusiastic proponents must do more aggressively if we are going to successfully bring this debate to a successful close once and for all.

First, we must make a more concerted effort to build on the growing appreciation Americans are now acquiring about how the new law will affect their lives. They need to know of our progress to date. We need to remind them that they will never have to worry about losing their insurance coverage, that they will have far more choices, that a national effort to keep them well, to reduce medical mistakes and to lower costs over time will have a profound effect on the quality and length of their lives and those of their families.

Second, opponents of healthcare reform must be called to task and asked, “Where is your plan?” To fail to put an alternative on the table is, by default, to acknowledge that you are prepared to accept the status quo of huge increases in cost, millions more uninsured, and unacceptable degradation of healthcare quality nationwide.

Third, we must be aggressively inclusive of all health stakeholders as the legal, legislative, administrative, regulatory and political issues are hammered out. In countless conversations with stakeholders all over the country, I am reminded over and over again how much we have missed a significant opportunity to build broader consensus because we have not satisfactorily reached out to provider groups, insurers, manufacturers and the scientific community.

I remain convinced that in not so many years “ObamaCare” will be considered to be as much of a political third rail as Social Security and Medicare are today. While we can expect healthcare reform to be a big part of the debate in the elections of 2012, we can also expect that as a result, future elections will no longer be about whether healthcare reform is necessary but about how we can do even more. When it comes to containing costs, increasing access and improving quality, there will be much, much more to be done.

Daschle is a former Democratic Senate majority leader.