I know deadlines seem completely arbitrary, but the reality is that deadlines are often necessary to get work done. How many of us wait until April 15 to pay our taxes? Without a deadline, we would probably wait even longer.
The same is true for health-care reform. Like taxes, it is a painful process. There are potential winners and losers. Politicians are making many difficult decisions as part of reform, and people typically don't like change, especially if they don't think it will benefit them. The strategy is then to delay. Delay can often weaken reform, or when there are competing priorities, delay can shift focus elsewhere. A deadline forces all parties to come together to make a decision. It is true that too early a deadline can result in a bill that isn't ideal. But let's face it...no one bill is going to address all the problems with our health-care system. There are going to be many bills necessary over many years to continue to refine the changes. We need to start somewhere, and making people take action by an imposed deadline is an effective strategy to get work done! For those who say the deadline is not feasible, I say let's go ahead and see!
Certainly one quick way to fix the health care system is to compare apples to apples. It is my understanding that the U.S. and Europe calculate infant mortality differently and in a way that skews comparisons in favor of the old world.
In the U.S., an infant is counted as "dead" if they die in the first 24 hours. In Europe, they are not counted as "dead" if they die within the first 72 hours. I guess they're just in limbo. This makes infant mortality, which is one of the important components of health care measures, seem higher in the U.S. than in Europe; creating the misconception that our health care ranks lower.
If you're going to compare systems to justify a major overhaul of our health care, then we should get the figures right.