Wonk Alert: American Prospect on ‘The Next Health Care Campaign’

Actually, the next health care campaign is the last health care campaign. It's the battle to get implemented — Ugh! That word! — the reform passed by Congress. For a nice overview of what lies ahead, check out this The American Prospect article by Paul Starr. A reminder of how hard it all is:

The Massachusetts program enjoyed overwhelming support from both the Democrats who controlled the state Legislature and the state's leading Republicans. Mitt Romney was the governor who signed the bill, and Scott Brown, now a U.S. senator, voted for it when he was in the state Senate.

Nonetheless, Jon Kingsdale, who was appointed to run the new insurance exchange in 2006, says that when he took the job, the best advice he received came from Tom O'Neill, the former lieutenant governor, who told him, "Jon, it's a political campaign from the day you start." And so it was: Winning the cooperation of interested parties and the general public was just like running a political campaign, Kingsdale recalled in his Boston office shortly before he stepped down in June.