PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

House Republicans are coming under increasing pressure because of the health care reform plan they have proposed to get rid of ObamaCare.

At least one reason is that they, in a tribute to PROCESS, have designed an approach that allows a specific bill to be considered by four committees before it gets to the House floor…that is, if it gets to the floor.

That path allows for many individuals and groups to raise questions about the bill as the draft is considered in public.

Consider the contrast to ObamaCare. When it was proposed in President Barack Obama’s first term, it came out one night – all 2,000 pages of it (in contrast to the repeal and replace bill that runs to about 200 pages) – and then was considered in the House and Senate almost immediately.

Few of those who voted on the bill had even read it, chief among them then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who admitted as much even as she voted “yes” and asked all of her colleagues to do the same.

In the end, only Democrats voted for ObamaCare and the process became another illustration of the duplicity of Obama. He talked a good line about bi-partisan cooperation, then acted in just the opposite way.

Process matters and the House Republicans this time around deserve credit for what they have designed. But, the trouble is they may not be able to produce a PRODUCT.

House Speaker Paul Ryan has tried artfully to describe the new compromise bill, saying it will be the best and perhaps the only chance to repeal and replace ObamaCare. If the approach fails, at least a 50-50 proposition, at best, Ryan says there won’t be another chance in this Congress.

Failure will stand as a major deficit for Republicans as they seek to express their majority.

As for the PRODUCT, here is a rendition of some of the good points about the compromise bill – a rendition provided, with all credit to a Wall Street Journal piece written by two leaders of the Republican health care compromise movement – Representatives Greg Walden from Oregon and Kevin Brady from Texas:

• Begins to return control of health care from Washington, D.C. back to the states, so that they can tailor their health-care systems to their unique communities.
• Provides immediate relief from ObamaCare by eliminating the penalties attached to the individual and employer mandates. Washington, D.C. will no longer force Americans to purchase expensive, inadequate plans they don’t need and cannot afford.
• Dismantles the ObamaCare taxes that have hurt patients, job creators and health-care providers. It repeals taxes on prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, health-insurance premiums and medical devices.
• Preserves and protects insurance for the more than 150 million Americans who receive employer-sponsored health coverage. It provides ObamaCare enrollees with access to the existing financial support for their plans through the end of 2019. People will also be able to use their ObamaCare subsidy to purchase expanded insurance options—including catastrophic coverage—without being tied to the failing exchanges.
• Enables young Americans to continue coverage on their parents’ plans until age 26.
• Insures that persons with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied policies. Nobody can be charged more for getting sick—period.
• Proposes a new protection for patients who maintain continuous coverage in the individual and small-group markets. [A similar “continuous coverage” provision already exists for those who get insurance through an employer. Extending this safeguard is a simple but important reform that will give patients an incentive to enroll and stay enrolled. This protection is based solely on enrollment status, ensuring that patients will be treated equally no matter how healthy or sick they are.]
• Establishes a Patient and State Stability Fund to help low-income Americans afford health care and to repair the damage done to state markets by ObamaCare.
• Strengthens Medicaid, which is a critical lifeline for millions of Americans and refocuses Medicaid’s limited resources to the patients most in need.
• Provides tax credits to help Americans pay for the health-care options they want—not the ones forced on them by Washington. [The bill repeals ObamaCare’s flawed subsidies, effective in 2020. After that, individuals and families who don’t receive insurance through work or a government program become eligible for between $2,000 and $14,000 in tax credits a year. These credits, based on age and family size, will give millions of people new flexibility and freedom to buy insurance tailored to their needs. The full credit would be available to Americans with low or middle incomes and would slowly phase out as they climb the pay scale.]
• Strengthens and expands health-savings accounts so Americans can save and spend their health-care dollars the way they want and need.

There is a lot of stake both for Republicans and for Americans in this effort to reform health care. My hope is that an interest in perfection will not derail a solid compromise effort, which will accomplish at least two objectives – get rid of a government-run program, ObamaCare, and inject the private marketplace back into health care.