Bridging the Enthusiasm Gap: Obama and the Conventional Wisdom

When the Clintons were trying to sell HillaryCare, BillClinton held nationwide televised townhalls. One was with a specially chosen audience of healthcare professionals -- San Diego hospital doctors and nurses.



Clinton explained the plan, which would've expanded HMOs control over more people's access to treatment. HMOs&PPOs were relatively new, middlemen, between patients & their healthcare providers. Most people in HMOs&PPOs hated them, only Clinton didn't know that.



With a big smile, Clinton said, "HMOs will be managing the care". Like that would be a good thing that everyone would love. The audience groaned, shook their heads. Clinton was thrown off by their reaction, but he quickly recovered & continued with his pitch as if it never happened. He seemed to honestly have no idea that HMOs were a problem for Americans.



Clinton had a valuable opportunity to make real change right then, go back to the drawing board, and include the American people instead of the corporations in health care reform. But as a DLCer, he danced with them that brung 'im (Big Insurance).



3 years later, "As Good As It Gets", with Helen Hunt & Jack Nicholson came out. There's a line in it where Hunt, who's been getting the runaround from her HMO about her little boy's treatment for asthma, says, "That b@stid HMO!" When that movie opened, in theaters across America, people stood up & cheered at that line.
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