How about this for an analogy?

On reading that the Senate’s health reform bill has swapped the controversial “public option” for a “buy-in” Medicare option + two national private insurance policies (Washington Post), I immediately had a giddy vision of the diagram on the left from Bruce Alberts’ Molecular Biology of the Cell.

This diagram describes how post/co-translational protein folding works.

1. On-Pathway: slowly moving along as a molten globule, trying out different combinations until it finds the correct conformation.

2. Off-Pathway: somehow turned into a not-so-good conformation, so chaperone proteins can help get it back on track.

3. “Irretrievable Accidents”: are ubiquitinated and chewed up by the proteasome.

Will health care reform become an “irretrievable accident”?

It’s been an interesting journey for me to learn about the American health system as a Canadian, so let this be my disclaimer that I’m definitely not an expert. However, it seems to me that the original objectives are getting more and more convoluted as this debate continues.

President Obama gave the “buy-in” option his approval, calling it “a creative new framework”. But given the choice, would “creative” be my favourite word I’d want to use to describe my health care?

Even the big elements of health care reform 2009 have been esoteric for the public. Consider The Atlantic’s recent piece on the universal confusion:

Two thirds of Americans don’t understand a centerpiece to health care reform that they consistently claim to support.

 

Back in September the Washington Post released a poll that taught lawmakers this: (1) A majority (55 percent) support a government-sponsored health care plan. (2) A minority (46 percent) support health care reform overall. (3) A plurality (50 percent) support health care reform overall if you take out the public option. Killing the most popular part of health care reform makes health care reform more popular? I mean … you figure that one out for yourself.

I don’t know if people will have the patience to digest more creativity.

And when the House subunit meets the Senate subunit, who knows what’ll happen?

I think it’s going to be a long holiday season.

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