The New Health Dialogue

Exactly one year ago, on December 24, 2008, we paused this blog with a message of hope. We wrote:

Before we give this blog (and our bloggers) a holiday break and wish our readers all the best for the New Year, we wanted to take a moment to look back at 2008 and look ahead, with some optimism, to 2009. Amid our challenges are opportunities, and amid those opportunities are the best chance in many years to fix our health care system so that it is both more equitable and more sustainable.

We didn’t accurately predict everything that would occur in 2009; We did not anticipate the intensity of August. But we got the essence right:

Yes we enter 2009 with trepidation about our nation's economy, about what's ahead. But we also enter the New Year with hope. Inspired in part by the passion of Sen. Kennedy, leaders in both the House and Senate have already begun the hard work that an historic legislative initiative demands. President-elect Obama has made clear that health reform is a priority for his administration, not just a slogan for his campaign. He has shown that he understands that fixing health care is part of fixing our economy. Health care costs are part of what's wrong with Detroit and the auto industry. Part of what's hurting our ability to compete globally. Part of our housing and foreclosure crisis. Part of what's eating away at our small businesses. Part of what's hurting American families. So here's to 2009. Here's to hope.

This morning’s sunrise Senate  passage of health reform legislation was a vindication of that hope. The story isn’t over. The bill isn’t perfect. We know that. We still have to get through House-Senate negotiations, finding a formula that can satisfy 218 House members and 60 Senators with different comfort levels about this legislation, different political pressures, different health care demands and scenarios to face back home. And beyond that, we will have to implement this complicated bill correctly in the coming years. All while combating rhetoric from the other side that won’t dissipate when the bill is signed, which in fact may intensify as the November elections approach.

But for now, as we again pause our blog for the  2009 holiday break and look toward 2010, we are still filled with hope. And gratitude for all the hard work -- from the White House down to the House parties -- that has brought us to the brink of this remarkable achievement. A health care system that is both more equitable and more sustainable.

Happy 2010 from the New America Foundation's Health Policy staff.

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