Main focus of Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Stage victory for Obama

After heated debate over healthcare reform in the US, the House of Representatives passed the healthcare bill on the weekend, a move widely viewed as a victory for US President Barack Obama. One goal of the reform is to assure coverage for the roughly 36 million US citizens currently without medical insurance.

The Economist - United Kingdom

US President Barack Obama has won a victory in the House of Representatives, the weekly magazine The Economist writes, but adds that the health-care reform now needs the Senate's blessing and that will prove more difficult to attain: "The passage of the bill represented welcome news for Mr Obama. He was unable to escape some of the blame for the Democratic losses of governors' offices in New Jersey and Virginia earlier in the week and there were more gloomy figures on jobs. In the past the president's hands-off approach to health-care reform has raised pertinent questions about his leadership style, but, despite the narrow margin of victory, passing the bill marks solid progress and at last gives the Democrats something to cheer. A big question remains in the Senate, however, where the action will now lie. Republicans insist that the current legislation restricts individual choice, but it is conservative Democrats in the chamber who could do most damage to the hopes of the reformers. A narrow victory in the House is not necessarily a harbinger of success in the Senate.” (09/11/2009)

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Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland

The US healthcare reform bill has been passed by the House of Representatives thanks to a compromise reached on the issue of abortion. Nevertheless debate continues and is having grotesque spin-offs, writes the Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "The Democrats are being overtaken by a topic that divides America like no other: abortion. ... The debate on healthcare reform is now assuming alarming proportions, for example when right-wing protesters compare the reform with the Holocaust or say Obama is part of a global Jewish conspiracy. When this happened recently in front of Congress Republican representatives mingled among the crowd without distancing themselves from the lunatic slogans. This issue is of national significance and has major economic and political consequences, nevertheless the political class seems incapable of reforming this weak link in their society in a collected, level-headed way." (09/11/2009)

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To Vima Online - Greece

The left-liberal daily To Vima says it can understand to a certain extent the negative reactions to US President Barack Obama's health care plan: "The reaction of those who have secured a comfortable position for themselves within the system of distribution of goods and rights is understandable. It was to be expected that entrepreneurs would worry about having to pay fines if they don't insure their employees. It's only natural that workers don't want to be integrated into a public insurance system when the concept of state institutions is foreign to them. The average, comfortably-situated US citizen asks why the state is forcing him to pay contributions [for health insurance]. Obama's response is an interesting comparison: it's unacceptable that car insurance is obligatory while a person's [health] insurance is not." (10/11/2009)

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