Remember Vice President Dick Cheney‘s dire warning, in the run-up to war against Iraq: “The risks of inaction are far greater than the risk of action.” I’d like to see Congressional hearings in which the VP is forced to account for that statement, in light of growing evidence that the Bush Administration grossly manipulated intelligence about those weapons of mass destruction.
While we’re at it, let’s throw Cheney’s warning back at him in another context. How about the argument that the risks of inaction on fundamental healthcare reform are much higher than any of the risks associated with a major overhaul of our failing system?
As David Broder noted in a recent Washington Post column, even leading private sector leaders and heads of several of America’s major corporations are beginning to make the case that, as the head of California’s public employees retirement system known as CalPERS put it, “fixing our dysfunctional health care system…needs to be our top priority.”
CalPERS and several large corporations are members of the bipartisan National Health Coalition on Health Care. Even this moderate coalition, co-chaired by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, understands that only a comprehensive approach, like universal health insurance, can head off our looming healthcare crisis.
But, despite a growing national consensus for healthcare reform, when it comes to the human security of 41 million uninsured Americans, the Bush White House is comfortable living with the risks of inaction.
