As the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) remains dangling open, Beltway wisdom is urging the President to name someone who will be a compromising, consensus figure if he wants anything done regarding health care during his first term. This wisdom says that above all things, the next Secretary of HHS should avoid doing or saying or proposing anything that might upset or anger the Republican Party. This is why Howard Dean’s name is dismissed as soon as it is suggested. He’s "too polarizing", "not centrist enough", would be "too radical".
Bullshit.
Never mind that Howard Dean—
- Is a licensed medical doctor
- Has experience running a complex organization (the Democratic Party) and getting results
- Has experience implementing health care legislation and policy when he was governor of Vermont
- Is an intelligent, effective speaker
- Has the courage of his convictions
Compromise will not win the argument over health care. It won’t even get us off square one. Don’t forget that stupendous forces are arrayed against the simple impulse to provide health insurance coverage every US citizen at a reasonable cost. Remember "Harry and Louise", the TV-commercial puppet show prepared by and paid for by the health insurance industry that scuttled the last attempt (in 1993) to reform health insurance in the US? Don’t think the industry is going to trade them in this time for a kinder, gentler approach; say a hologram of Abe Lincoln talking quietly from a folksy posture on the edge of a doctor’s desk.
The insurance companies know that if an open investigation is ever conducted into how health insurance costs could be cut, these two facts will emerge:
- "Managed care" is a complete waste of money and resources, and only serves to limit health care access and force people to use incompetent doctors and facilities they otherwise would never choose.
- The major driver in the escalating cost of health insurance is the profit motive. "The Market" has no place running the show when its purposes are directly at odds with the interests of the American people.
Of course the insurance industry will fight this tooth and nail, and if there is a warm-and-fuzzy let’s-all-come-together-on-this Secretary of HHS, nothing substantial will ever be done. Some new stupid, expensive "compromise" will be cobbled together, and not one extra person will be covered without bloated payments going to private insurers. Howard Dean has shown repeatedly that he is a creature of neither the health insurance industry and its lobbyists nor the political machinery that so often must be courted in order to get things done.
A strong voice is needed at HHS, and it is needed now. Mr. President, will you please give this to us?