Ah, the health care reform legislation- still the darling of the Democratic party that will take up their time and energy until we have health care reform.

You have to respect their diligence and perseverant spirit. After setbacks ranging from a total lack of votes from within their own party to the loss of Senator Kennedy, the champion extraordinaire of the project, they are still pushing for it with the force of Obama’s campaign- hope and change. Delivered.

Pelosi is in there addressing concerns “member-by-member.” And Mr. Reid is in there still working out issues. I’ll bet.

But they are all saying that they are close to “hammering out the final changes,” as Reuters puts it. Like a round peg into an oblong and thin crack in the financial mess that is the United States Congress, if you ask me.

"We have a pretty good idea of where we are going on it. We have to, member-by-member, address the concerns that they raise," said Pelosi.

Obama wants a thumbs-up/ thumbs-down vote. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is holding a series of meetings at the White House.

They are resisting any kind of White House imposed deadlines- um, yeah. I could have told you that when they missed the August deadline last year.

Cost continues to be a big issue, as it should be. I read a revealing op-ed from David Brooks in the New York Times last week that basically shot holes in the future cost projections. Saying that it will be more expensive than anyone says it will be because the plan the Congressional Budget Office is weighing in on is riddled with accounting tricks, oops, tools, is an understatement. It’ll be costly. But it will remain to be seen in the 10 or 20 years of it actually being in action whether it will be more or less expensive than not doing anything. I think the wide-range, long-term deal is that healthcare for all of us is going to be ridiculously expensive- and do we want it to be in the control of private insurance and pharmaceutical companies or do we want it to be in the hands of the government? That’s the question.

I’m going to have to say the government. Because if it’s private, we’re going to get battles similar to the one we just watched between the car companies and Wall Street and the general public. If people looking at profit run health, you end up with the focus being on profit. If the government runs health care you end up with the focus on being just getting by, not on making sure things are bringing in cash but on making sure things are serving the people. I don’t think it’s altruistic or that it will be perfect, or that it will necessarily be better, but I’d rather have the government in charge of costs than a corporation that is trying to make a buck off me having cancer. You know what I mean? What do you think? In the wide-view, who should be in charge of health- corporations or government agencies?

Photo Credit: Waldo Jaquith (via Flickr under CCL)