About the author

Bob Graham is executive editor at Insurance & Financial Advisor and IFAwebnews.com.

More by Bob Graham »
Contact Bob Graham »

The easiest way for Democrats and President Barack Obama to pass health care reform is to cram bits and pieces of the Senate and House reform bills into other legislation.

Reading between the lines of Obama’s statements and those of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, you can see that the White House is in pivot mode. Notice how the president has distanced himself quickly from the stink of his health care reform failure, making Pelosi essentially the sacrificial lamb. Obama’s going to pivot to the economy, and that’s how bits and pieces of the health care reform legislation is going to get approved.

The economy is on everyone’s mind, and has been, more so than health reform, since the recession began. That reality appears to have been lost on the White House and Democrats for the last year. The economy is a safe area for political concern because there’s only so much the president and Congress can do to fix it. They can call for reform, chide high-paid CEOs (note to White House: change “insurers” and “insurance companies” to “big business”) and make it seem like they are working to fix the problem. And while the economy has real problems, it also has more moving parts than health care reform, meaning they have great cover if their efforts to fix it fail.

Congress has to find a way to create more jobs. When it does, look for an add-in mandating the end of insurers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions to be included in the bill to create more jobs. That combination would be difficult for members of Congress to oppose because they would be painted as anti-job creation. Similar additions in other hard-to-oppose bills – how about another extension of COBRA benefits or the National Flood Insurance Program — could score victories on other health care reform measures, maybe even health exchanges or a public option. One can picture the White House staff going through the Senate and House health care reform bills, creating the matrix of common elements to get friendly members of Congress to quietly add to bills.

The president and Democrats have pushed too hard, too long to give up now. In the nooks and crannies of a series of bills, Democrats are going to try to move health care reform forward. You can count on it – and you can keep an eye out for it.