Forget Politics, Health Is Much More Important

There's an article today in the New York Times about President Obama's "health care overhaul campaign" and his stop yesterday at Arcadia University, just outside Philadelphia.

While the article is purely news, Obama's speech is not just rhetoric; it's a call for action: “What should I tell these Americans? That Washington’s not sure how it will play in November? That we should walk away from this fight?”

Unfortunately, the questions Obama is asking seem to be coming true even for his own party. Many Democrats are afraid that passing a healthcare bill will hurt them come November, stranger yet, many Democrats have been unwilling to vote for a healthcare bill because it is not liberal enough.

While I agree that none of the bills that have been introduced are liberal enough, that doesn't mean we should wait for the perfect piece of legislation to vote for healthcare reform.

The way a democracy works is that we build piece-by-piece to make the country better, which is exactly what we can do with healthcare reform.

Think about it this way, on July 30, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the aptly named Social Security Act of 1965 into law. These amendments to the original Social Security Act created both Medicare and Medicaid.

But, of course, that didn't make the United States' healthcare system perfect and several additions to help those who couldn't pay for health insurance have been created, like the Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997.

In the next few weeks we need to pass a healthcare bill that will cover the majority of uninsured Americans so that they can get the proper health coverage to stay healthy or deal with illnesses and injuries. Maybe the bill won't be perfect but we can always improve upon it in the future.

There is a foundation for everything, and the foundation for universal health-coverage should be put into place this year, and better yet, this month.