Reframing the Health Reform Debate, the Senate Version

A few weeks back, the White House issued a report warning of the economic implications if Washington policymakers don’t reform the nation’s health care system this year to cover more folks and rein in costs. The message wasn’t new, but the strategy — by re-framing health reform as an economic necessity affecting us all, rather than just a moral obligation to the lower-income folks who disproportionately lack for care — was intended to create an urgency among middle class Americans that might lend a necessary momentum to the Democrats’ overhaul plans.

Now Congress is following suit. In a campaign launched earlier this week, the Senate Democratic Policy Committee has compiled a long list of stats and reports highlighting the economic dangers of health reform inaction this year.

The various headings set the tone: “Rising health care costs have consumed a larger portion of wages,” notes one. “Rising health care costs jeopardize employer-sponsored coverage,” warns another. A third cautions that, “Rising health care costs lead to unsustainable medical debt.”

The message is clear: This is no longer a problem just facing the uninsured. We’re all in this together.

It’s a somewhat cynical approach to this debate. Why, after all, isn’t the knowledge that more than 45 million Americans — roughly one in six — lack health coverage not enough on its own to spur lawmakers to action?

Still, the coming debate promises to be one of the most contentious, partisan, knife-throwing, back-biting, ideologically driven battles to hit Capitol Hill in a long time. The Democrats will need every tiny advantage they can wrangle. Focusing on the economy can’t hurt.