Opinion: How to Make Health-Care Reform Bipartisan

Bobby Jindal published another opinion article, this time in the main section of the Wall Street Journal.

In Washington, it seems history always repeats itself. That’s what’s happening now with health-care reform. This is an unfortunate turn of events for Americans who are legitimately concerned about the skyrocketing cost of a basic human need.

In 1993 and 1994, Hillary Clinton’s health-care reform proposal failed because it was concocted in secret without the guiding hand of public consensus-building, and because it was a philosophical over-reach. Today President Barack Obama is repeating these mistakes.

The reason is plain: The left in Washington has concluded that honesty will not yield its desired policy result. So it resorts to a fundamentally dishonest approach to reform. I say this because the marketing of the Democrats’ plans as presented in the House of Representatives and endorsed heartily by President Obama rests on three falsehoods.

You can read the full article on the WSJ web site →

A few notes to aid your reading and analysis:

• This is an important issue to Jindal. His first major governmental position was as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals under Governor Mike Foster. Later, he was appointed by President Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to be the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation.
• In this article, Jindal refers to a Lewin Group report. The Lewin Group is a corporation that provides health and human resource consulting. The full report can be found here.
• Jindal discusses the ineffectiveness of bureaucracies in major decision making. Marketing mogul Seth Godin wrote an intriguing article a few years ago concerning this. You can read it here.