Now that President Obama has signed the House's health care legislation, is it the beginning of "reform of the reform" 

Rather ironic, that it took all this time, ongoing stumbling, bumbling, caving, and reneging on promises to create a mediocre bill that is being celebrated as the best thing since Social Security and Medicare.

As one blogger so cleverly phrased it: "If there was one place I was sure the Obama administration would be different from Bush, it was that they would give us higher-quality lies. Oh, was I naive."

Some progressive Dems insist that this is not the finished product, but only the first step in a process to achieve universal health care coverage in this country.  Let's hope they're correct.

The US, despite this bill, still remains one of the only industrialized nations that is without universal health care for its inhabitants.

John Nichols at The Nation writes: "The Nation editorial urging Congress to support President Obama's health-care reform legislation recognized that the measure was flawed. But it argued that there were practical and political reasons for supporting it.

"The core point was that passing the bill needed to be seen as part of a process, not as a finished product.

"As such, the editorial closed with the lines:

" '....our message must be that genuine reform begins, and only begins, with passage of the current legislation. It ends with achievement of the goal that should be our new battle cry: Medicare for All.'

"Here's what the leaders of Physicians for a National Health Care Program say about it:

" 'As much as we would like to join the celebration of the House's passage of the health bill last night, in good conscience we cannot. We take no comfort in seeing aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer.

'Instead of eliminating the root of the problem - the profit-driven, private health insurance industry - this costly new legislation will enrich and further entrench these firms. The bill would require millions of Americans to buy private insurers' defective products, and turn over to them vast amounts of public money.

'The hype surrounding the new health bill is belied by the facts:' "

Here are just a few:

" '* Insurance firms will be handed at least $447 billion in taxpayer money to subsidize the purchase of their shoddy products. This money will enhance their financial and political power, and with it their ability to block future reform.

'* The bill will drain about $40 billion from Medicare payments to safety-net hospitals, threatening the care of the tens of millions who will remain uninsured.

'* People with employer-based coverage will be locked into their plan's limited network of providers, face ever-rising costs and erosion of their health benefits. Many, even most, will eventually face steep taxes on their benefits as the cost of insurance grows.' "

As to any gains derived by the common good, or gains by the Democrats during this torturous, seemingly infinite, ultimately form over substance, flawed, kabuki dance of a bill, Jon Walker at Firedoglike aptly describes it: "Dems Reap The Red-Baiting Pain With None Of The Gain:"

"Democrats did not offer a truly socialized health care system like they have in the United Kingdom. They did not just pass a universal single payer health care system like “Medicare for all.” Not only did the bill not include a public option, but the regulations on the private insurance companies are extremely loose. Despite passing an extremely industry friendly, pro-private market, health insurance expansion bill, Democrats were still attacked by Republicans as socialists pushing a “government takeover” of health care.

"Similarly, the bill with the Nelson abortion language and President Obama’s executive order will be perhaps the biggest political and policy victory for the anti-abortion movement in decades. On the policy front, it will likely cost millions of women the abortion coverage they now have, and, on the political front, you have a Democratic president signing an anti-choice executive order. Yet, even on the same day as their huge victory, Republicans were still calling the health care bill the most pro-abortion piece of legislation since Roe v. Wade.

"Democrats get accused of being socialist and baby killers no matter how hard they try to appease Republicans or kick their own progressive base. They have taken all the political blame for “socialism” without the political and policy upside of providing people with a popular public program like Medicare available to all.

"If this health care fight finally taught congressional Democrats that Republicans will always tell insane lies and that they simply can’t ever be appeased with policy changes, it just might have all been worthwhile. If you are going to get the blame either way, do the legislation the smart way to at least get maximum credit when it works.

"Sadly, I doubt the lesson was learned."