THE AMERICANS WHO SAVED HEALTH INSURANCE
Many Americans look back on the heroic political fights of the past — for suffrage, Social Security, civil rights, Medicare — and wonder why today’s politics never produce inspiring victories. Well, we just witnessed one.
If one of the Senate or House health care bills had become law, millions of people would have lost their coverage.
And it came depressingly close to happening. But it didn’t — because of a lot of hard work from a lot of people. Today, I want to give them their due. They are the people who have helped save decent medical care for their fellow citizens.
› The Citizens
Jessi Bohon isn’t a political activist. She is a teacher in central Tennessee who grew up poor in rural Virginia. But President Donald Trump’s victory led her to join a grassroots group called Indivisible, which encouraged people to attend town hall meetings on health care.
Bohon was one of thousands of citizens who took time to attend meetings, visit congressional offices and call those offices, often repeatedly. This sustained action worked better than any poll to show Congress how unpopular the bills were. It was a reminder of how democracy can work.
› The Organizers
Jessi Bohon was able to join Indivisible because of a group of millennials who reacted to Trump’s election not with despair or blame games but by trying to make a difference.
At an Austin, Texas, bar during Thanksgiving week, three friends got together to talk about stopping Trump’s agenda. The friends — Sara Clough along with Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, a married couple who had both worked in Congress — envisioned a Google document with tips for citizen action. Others were involved, too, and the document began circulating online. It led to the formation of Indivisible, with chapters around the country trying to replicate the Tea Party’s success, albeit to different ends.
› The Experts
I’ve never seen a major political fight inspire such an expert consensus, across the ideological spectrum.
Groups representing doctors, nurses, hospitals and patients of virtually every disease criticized these bills. So did both liberal and conservative policy experts. Congressional Budget Office analysts refused to be bullied and provided dispassionate, devastating, analyses.
The bills had virtually no independent defenders.
› The Unintimidated
At least nine Republican senators expressed grave doubts about the bills. But only two voted no consistently: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
What set Collins and Murkowski apart was a willingness to buck intense pressure from Republican leaders.
› The Institutionalists
Chief Justice John Roberts is a movement conservative. Yet he cast the vote that saved Obamacare in 2012 partly because he understood that a partisan shredding of the safety net could undermine his institution — the Supreme Court.
John McCain is also deeply conservative. Yet, like Roberts, he realized that taking health coverage from millions, in a hasty, secretive process, could damage his favorite institution — the Senate.
› The Democrats
Not a single Democrat wavered in recent months. Every red-state Democrat stood firm. Why? They thought their Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, was listening to them and their concerns. They had also held their own town halls, and they knew the bills were deeply unpopular.
The unity was a fitting echo of 2010, when Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid kept their party together to pass the most important social policy in decades. Today, it remains the law of the land.
I hope everyone who played a role in last week’s victory sets aside some time to savor it. It was a big deal, and it was not inevitable. One day, Americans will look back on it with respect and, yes, nostalgia.