Obama’s promise for health care reform comes full circle

IOWA CITY, Iowa — President Barack Obama’s quest for enacting health care reform started in May 2007 when, as a presidential candidate, he first unveiled his plan for health care reform in Iowa City and promised to pass a universal health care plan in to law by the end of his first term in office. Obama’s journey took nearly three years, but he completed the circle and made good on part of his campaign promise when he signed a health care overhaul bill into law Tuesday.

“After a year of debate and a century of trying, after so many of you shared your stories and your heartaches and your hopes, that promise was finally fulfilled,” Obama told more than 3,000 people packed into the University of Iowa Field House gymnasium, located just around the corner from where he initially made his promise nearly three years ago. “And today, health insurance reform is the law of the land.”

Even though the health care bill, having survived several months of political wrangling in Congress, has already passed, Obama was not leaving anything to chance or misinformation when he returned to Iowa City and pitched the benefits of the new law.

“Over the last year, there’s been a lot of misinformation spread about health care reform. There has been plenty of fear-mongering and overheated rhetoric,” Obama said. “And if you turn on the news, you’ll see that those same folks are still shouting about how the world will end because we passed this bill. This is not an exaggeration. Leaders of the Republican Party have actually been calling the passage of this bill ‘Armageddon.’”

Taking a dramatic cue from the word “Armageddon,” Obama took a moment to look around the gymnasium to see whether any of the walls had crumbled down or the end-of-the-world had indeed ensued, joking “I don’t see any cracks in the earth opening up. In fact the day of the signing was a pretty nice day,” he said. “And people still had the doctors they had before I signed the bill into law.”

During the first part of Obama’s pitch, he reassured the audience that critics of health care reform will now have to face the facts prescribed in the bill, as theory metamorphoses into reality and practice.

“But from this day forward, all of the cynics and the naysayers will have to finally confront the reality of what this reform is and what it isn’t,” he said. “They will have to finally acknowledge that this isn’t a government takeover of our health care system. They will see that if Americans like their doctor, they will keep their doctor. If people like their plan, they will keep their plan. No one will be able to take that away from you.”

In his campaign speech at the University of Iowa Hospitals in 2007, Obama vowed to break up the stranglehold of the drug and insurance companies, which he argued served as a major obstacle standing in the way of achieving a comprehensive solution to the health care crisis.

“And I believe that no amount of industry profiteering and lobbying should stand in the way of that right any longer,” Obama said at the time. “It’s time to let the drug and insurance industries know that while they’ll get a seat at the table, they don’t get to buy every chair.”

Three years later, after the drug and insurance industries had pumped millions of dollars into trying to stop the health care bill from passing, Obama admitted that the new law will not solve every health care problem we have now. Moreover, he admitted that while these powerful industries will have a seat at the table, they will have to adhere to a new set of guidelines and oversight.

“But it (health care reform) finally tells the insurance companies that in exchange for all the new customers they’re about to get, they have to start playing by a new set of rules that treat everyone fairly and honestly,” Obama said. “The days of the insurance industry running roughshod over the American people are over.”

Obama touted how the aspects of the new law will go into effect this year. Millions of small business owners will be eligible for a tax credit up to 35 percent of the costs directly applied to providing health care insurance for employees.

“This health care tax credit is pro-jobs, it’s pro-business, and it starts this year,” Obama said.

Moreover, starting this year tens of thousands of uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions and parents whose children have a pre-existing condition will be able to purchase the coverage they need.

“On Tuesday, I met David Gallagher, whose daughter Lauren had written me a letter last year,” Obama told the audience. “When Lauren’s mom lost her job, their entire family lost their health insurance. When they tried to get new insurance, David was denied coverage because he once had a complication-free hernia surgery. Lauren’s been worried sick about what would happen if her father became ill or injured. But now, because of this reform, David Gallagher can finally have access to health insurance again.”

This part of the plan struck home and resonated with Dr. George Phillips, a pediatrics doctor at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. “This new law sets the benchmark for coverage for all preventive care that all children should receive,” he said. “We’ve seen so many children in the hospital, whose medical conditions have reached an acute stage that could have either been prevented or addressed earlier in the process, had they had wellness checks.”

Terry Philips of Riverside was also pleased by the eventual ban on denying coverage to people who have pre-existing conditions.

“This is a great place to start and serves as a reality check,” Philips, chairman of the Democratic Veterans’ Caucus, told The Iowa Independent. “The law is not a fix, but it serves as a good starting point where we can start to believe and hope for change. Four years gives us an opportunity to make sure these provisions work before moving on to other changes to the health care system.”

Brady Shutt, a high school teacher from Iowa City, was also pleased about the pre-existing component, but admitted that he would like to see health care reform go even further.

“Covering pre-existing conditions really resonated with me, even thought I don’t have any,” Shutt said. “This is a good start, but eventually, I would like to see us move more towards a public option as well.”

Obama pitched other components of benefits that will go in effect this year that include a provision barring insurance companies from dropping peoples’ coverage when they get sick, or place lifetime limits or restrictive annual limits on the amount of care they can receive. This year, all new insurance plans will be required to offer free preventive care, and Obama made a direct appeal to college students in the crowd.

“Starting this year, if you don’t have insurance, all new plans and some current ones will allow you to stay on your parents’ insurance policy until you’re 26 years old,” he said. “Because as you start your lives and your careers, the last thing you should worry about is whether you’ll go broke just because you get sick.”

Finally, Obama target senior citizens who fall in the coverage gap known as the doughnut hole.

“The will receive $250 to help pay for prescriptions, which will be the first step toward closing that gap completely,” Obama said, further elaborating on some of the misinformation that has been spreading regarding this proposal. “And I want seniors to know: despite what some have said, these reforms will not cut your guaranteed benefits. In fact, under this law, Americans on Medicare will receive free preventive care, without co-payments or deductibles. Darlyne Neff is here today. She’s a breast cancer survivor, and she has fought her heart out for reform over the last few years. Today, the preventive care she needs will finally be covered without any charge.”

As Obama mentioned throughout his speech, the bill does not do everything he campaigned for in 2007 but is a start in the right direction. One audience member kept shouting “What about the public option,” something Obama campaigned for in 2007.

“There’s no need to shout,” he said, directly addressing the young man. “The public option isn’t part of the bill, because Congress would not push it through.”

By the end of his address, Obama’s speech shifted gears into campaign mode and began to feel more and more like a campaign stump speech reminiscent of the Iowa Caucuses that helped launch his presidential bid in 2007.

“This is the reform that some folks in Washington are still hollering about,” he said. “And now that it’s passed, they’re already promising to repeal it. They’re actually going to run on a platform of repeal in November.”

“I say go for it,” Obama added. “If these Congressmen in Washington want to come here to Iowa and tell small business owners that they plan to take away their tax credits and essentially raise their taxes, be my guest. If they want to look Lauren Gallagher in the eye and tell her they plan to take away her father’s health insurance, that’s their right. If they want to make Darlyne Neff pay more money for her check-ups and her mammograms, they can run on that platform. If they want to have that fight, I welcome that fight. Because I don’t believe the American people are going to put the insurance industry back in the driver’s seat. We’ve been there already and we’re not going back. This country is ready to move forward.”

Drawing on his past experiences while campaigning in Iowa, Obama drew on the familiar campaign themes of hope and change and how the hard-fought passage of the health care bill is emblematic of both and the fight has just begun.

“It has reminded us of what we learned all those months ago on a cold January night here in Iowa: that change, while never easy, is always possible,” he said. “That it comes not from the halls of power, but from the hearts of our people. Amid setbacks, it requires perseverance. Amid calls for delay, it requires a sense of urgency. And in the face of unrelenting cynicism, it requires unyielding hope.”

The audience sensed the familiar rise in Obama’s elocution as the speech reached its apex, ending with the familiar exclamation of “Yes we can.”

“Iowa,” Obama shouted. “Yes we did, because of you.”