President Barack Obama still may push through a thoroughgoing overhaul of the American health-care system, but political indicators point to a needed overhaul of his own tactics for selling reform.
Barely eight months in office, Obama is trapped in a tightening vice. On one side, Republicans refuse to countenance further government involvement in health care; on the other, liberal Democrats insist Obama keep his campaign pledge to make sure the estimated 50 million Americans who are without coverage can afford health insurance.
“The people don’t have sufficient information, and I’m surprised the administration and others backing reform haven’t done much more to educate the public,” said Robin Lauermann, professor of politics at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.
As he struggles against a powerful wave of opposition to reforming the system, his poll numbers are slipping significantly.
A Washington Post-ABC News survey found that fewer than half of Americans — 49 percent — say they believe the president will make the right decisions for the country.
That’s down from 60 percent at the 100-day mark in his presidency.
The poll shows Obama’s overall approval is 57 percent, 12 points lower than it was at its peak in April. Fifty-three percent disapprove of the way he’s handling the budget deficit and his approval on health care continues to deteriorate.
A look at other bare numbers — significant Democratic majorities in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate — doesn’t explain the overwhelming complexity of bringing the United States in line with the world’s other wealthy democracies that guarantee health care to everyone.
Mixed into that equation are the so-called Blue Dog Democrats — a conservative wing of the party that in many ways shares reform reservations with Republicans. The Blue Dogs oppose Obama’s call for a government-run insurance option. Their votes against the Obama plan could negate the overall Democratic majority.
The president argues that a public option would embrace those now without coverage, give others a choice beyond private insurance and, in theory, bring down the cost for everyone through competition from nonprofit government program.
As the health care argument swirls through the nation during the August congressional recess, Americans have witnessed ugly and offensive attacks on the motives driving Obama and those who support changing the system. This despite the fact that uncovered medical costs have been a major contributor to personal bankruptcies in the world’s No. 1 economy. A multitude of factors are responsible.
First, many Americans are deeply suspicious of federal government involvement in their lives — even some in the nation’s aging population who are dependent on Social Security and Medicare, the government programs that serve as a national pension system and pay for medical treatment for every American over age 65.
Second, that fear of government involvement in Americans’ private lives, finds expression in a Republican Party philosophy that maintains the private sector — motivated by profit and free market pressures — always works better than a government bureaucracy.
Republicans hold to that argument even though America spends more on health care for a lesser result than countries with government-run systems.
And Obama has allowed Congress to write the specifics of new health-care legislation with minimal demands from the White House. He has said he wants assurances that any plan does not increase the soaring national debt. What’s more, the president said he prefers a public option, although recent remarks by administration officials suggest he might back away from that preference.
