Building Up From the Legislative Floor

Today's news shows just how far we've come as a nation in facing up to the massive, complex challenges facing of our health-care system. The Baucus bill - while far from perfect - is a reasonable, responsible effort to deal with the dual crises of ballooning health-care costs and the swelling ranks of the uninsured.

But we must remember that the Baucus bill represents the legislative floor from which we are all working now - the very minimum reform we can and should expect to come out of Congress and land on President Obama's desk in the coming weeks.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and three House committees produced versions of the health-reform bill that do a significantly better job in expanding care to those who can't afford it or who work at jobs that don't provide it (Baucus' bill, meanwhile, may leave as many as 25 million Americans uninsured). The House and Senate HELP bills provide powerful incentives to both push down costs and improve the quality of care Americans receive.

The House and Senate HELP bills go much further in addressing the devastating health disparities facing low-income people and communities of color, which have long been saddled with too little insurance, not enough primary care clinics, poor air, and few places to exercise or buy healthy food. These bills would all represent a powerful step forward in the fight for healthier communities across America.

The political challenges will only get more daunting as these bills move toward reconciliation. We are working from a strong, bipartisan foundation -- but we cannot get complacent. We must build a better, more inclusive bill atop the strong foundation we have now. If we do, for the first time, it looks like meaningful, sustainable health-reform may be within our grasp.

By Angela Glover Blackwell  |  October 13, 2009; 5:15 PM ET  | Category:  Health Care Reform
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