Sometimes, nothing is something to worry about

After reading various reactions of doctors and other health care providers who submitted posts to the Grand Rounds special post-healthcare reform edition that Glenn linked earlier, I’m worried about what might happen over the next two years. I think everyone who opposed Obamacare should be worried too.
From a partisan political standpoint, the worst thing that could happen would be nothing.
As several medical bloggers who have analyzed this pointed out, what is being put in place is not health care reform, but health insurance reform. As my congressman (John Dingell) put it, it’s a framework:

“It takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.”

And just as it took time to get the bill passed, will take time to implement the framework.
First comes the health care insurance industry, and then the health care system itself. By the bill’s own terms, this will take years.
The Democrats are not suicidal, and I think it is highly unlikely that they will even come close to implementation stage of their real goal any time soon. A nightmarish goal it is, but ordinary people probably won’t see it happening between now and the elections. If the Democrats have sense, they will make sure that nothing happens that will adversely affect ordinary people in the near future. That will play right into their hands, because they’ll be able to sit back and say, “the Republicans told you the sky was falling, and look! Everything is under control.”
And because this is a highly political, highly partisan issue, many people on the right (myself included) did in fact shriek loudly and frequently about how this would mean the end of the best health care system known to man, etc. Which it will, but the point is, the stuff that will hurt people won’t happen right away.
So the Democrats will do everything possible to make the Republican look like a bunch of hysterical whining ninnies, like a bunch of little boys who cried wolf. And see, the big bad wolf never came!
The lesson is that if you say the sky is falling and it doesn’t fall, you have a bit of a problem. I hate to sound like a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, but if we see the Pelosi bill as providing the legal framework for the destruction of the health insurance industry (and as we all know, health care is hopelessly dependent on health insurance), then it’s like placing demolition charges in a building with timers set to go off at whatever point is deemed “optimal.” The building would still look fine and be fine, even if its fate is sealed.
If you don’t like that image, another way to look at it is like a fence. First come the post holes, followed by posts planted in the ground. People can still come and go. The one day, the fence is up. But it will be too late! As Sonny in A Bronx Tale told the bikers after he locked the doors.

“Now yous can’t leave!“

So I guess I’m worried about nothing.