A failure to communicate

If this is true, then I'm not sure that criticism of the president that he didn't make the case strongly enough, or of Congress's use of back room deals to get Cloture in the Senate are entirely fair. Truth is, the majority of Americans are just fine with the status quo, even when the status quo is not sustainable.

Most Republicans would no doubt argue that the public is rejecting the Democratic plan for reforming the U.S. health care system, but a report released yesterday shows the Democrats came up short in a far more fundamental sense. They failed to convince the public that the system is flawed enough that it needs fixing.

A new survey from the highly respected Robert Wood Johnson Foundation indicates that slightly more Americans are confident in their ability to access and afford health care than they were in May 2009. Despite all the town halls, the rallies organized by pro-reform progressive groups, the pro-reform television ad campaigns, the Congressional hearings featuring Americans injured by a flawed insurance apparatus, the public is simply not convinced that the health care system is broken enough that it needs to be changed dramatically. (And I might add, despite all the reporting that's been done about how broken the U.S. health care system is.)

Perhaps Obama erred in making too much of consoling people with employer-based health insurance or Medicaid/Medicare, that if they like what they've got it isn't going to change. And obviously, the press spent far more time covering Nebraskagate then they did the fact that your employer will more and more dump the rocketing cost of health care on you. But what shocks me -- what has shocked me for years -- is the failure of corporate executives to speak out against our health care system. It kills them with their global competitors. It is not a situation that can go on forever. It blocks off healthy levels of attrition as people keep jobs they might otherwise leave for fear of losing coverage. It is insane. But the execs keep quiet, hoping, I'm sure, Congress will get it done, without having to expose themselves as supporting a social safety net program and make their employees nervous about their ultimate intentions.