Delusions of health care reform

It would be hard for health care reform to be in worse shape. What were once lofty promises to curtail the excess of a soulless group of health insurance companies has turned into what is almost certainly going to be a bonanza for those very same companies. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying desperately to salvage some aspect of the bill and even still it seems unlikely that any good will come from this "reform."

Reid is hoping to work a very watered down public option into the final health care bill with a caveat in place that allows individual states to opt out of this public option. This is just about as meek a request as Reid could possibly make and still many moderate Democrats, and every single Republican, refuse to entertain the notion of expanding government health care to more citizens.

The president certainly has been no help. President Obama has at times both supported the moderate Democrat's plan for a trigger system in the health care bill, and also claimed to be staying out of the process entirely. It is unclear why the president is so insistent that the House and Senate figure all this out without his input.

Beginning to open up Medicare to progressively younger age groups would be an entirely productive step toward freeing Americans of health care debt.

Even if Reid is able to corral the 60 senators he needs to pass his version of the health care bill the plan will still be woefully inadequate and quite possibly destructive. If it contains a provision requiring all Americans to purchase health care, millions of people will be forced to buy insurance they may not need and cannot afford. This is nothing something worth doing halfway. Sadly, as it now stands even the best that Harry Reid is likely to be able to muster will almost certainly not be enough.