Selling Health Reform

It's been nearly six months since health reform became the law and still, half of all seniors think it has something to do with "death panels" -- a complete fabrication. Anti-reformers have been very successful in spreading misinformation and scaring people into believing that reform will hurt them in the long run, when it was the status quo that was really hurting Americans terribly.

Well, now, the White House and other allies are planning a counteroffensive, says the LA Times. It's about time. I've too often felt like a lone voice in the wilderness, buoyed only by occasional conference calls with groups in DC who simply aren't being heard in the rest of the country.

Health reform is far from perfect, but come the end of September, we will start to see some real changes -- coverage of kids to age 26, no pre-existing condition exclusions for kids to age 19, new rules about appeals of coverage denials, no lifetime caps and increasingly high (to phased out) annual caps on benefits -- a lot of really important changes that nobody opposes. I hope that, as these improvements become more real and people see how they are helping, public opinion will soften. That takes keeping an open mind, though, so I hope you will. Jennifer