Specifics on health care tougher sale for Obama

Bloomberg:

When Patricia McArdle volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, her duties and goals were clear. Now she’s devoting her time to his health-care plan and says she’s confused and frustrated.

Obama, who enlisted a 13 million-member grassroots army to help him win the White House, is trying to remobilize those people to build support for his proposed overhaul.

That goal may prove elusive. The constituencies that joined forces to back Obama the candidate disagree over the scope of the health-care overhaul, particularly whether it should create a so-called single-payer system that reimburses providers through a government-run fund.

And turning out the vote is far simpler than influencing legislation to remake an industry that accounts for 17 percent of the economy, said McArdle, 62, a retired diplomat. “The election was easy because it was telling you to do one thing: vote for Obama,” she said. Working on health care is “kind of frustrating.”

Obama is pursuing a goal that has eluded presidents of both parties for the past 60 years. He is counting on volunteers such as McArdle to help him marshal public support to overcome resistance to some aspects of his plan from hospitals, doctors and companies such as Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana Inc., the second-largest U.S. provider of government-backed health benefits.

Humana’s chief executive officer, Michael McCallister, said in a June 15 interview that any government-run health plan “has the potential to disrupt 170 million people who get coverage through their employer or individually.”

The campaign organization that harnessed the Internet through Facebook, e-mails and online fundraising to get Obama elected says it will send lawmakers thousands of stories from Americans struggling under the current system. Those campaign- style tactics may not prove as effective when it comes to driving policy.

“It’s an experiment,” said Paul Tewes, a strategist who ran Obama’s campaign in Iowa. “Are they going to do it with the same intensity that they did on Nov. 5? That’s a challenge.”

...

I am one of those 80 percent of Americans for whom health care coverage has never been a problem, and that is a problem for those selling change. I have always maintained that Obama would run into trouble when he started having to focus on the specifics of the "change" he was pushing and that is happening on health care now. It is probably asking too much to hope he changes his mind. He will have to be defeated on two levels. The cost of the change he wants will increase the debt to more than we can stand and the rationing of care will mean less for most people. In other words, he is asking 80 percent of Americans to pay more and get less health care.