Elections have consequences: we voted for universal health care and intend to get it done. Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, millions of Americans were given the option for transformational change; for shifting the billions we spend on high-end tax cuts and war in Iraq to the health and well-being of our families. Now it is crunch time — and the rising chorus of patients, doctors, nurses and small businesses speaks with one voice: it is time to deliver.

What stands in the way? The status quo. Today’s salvo comes from the Congressional Budget Office assessment that health care reform needs more changes and fewer costs. This morning I received my daily beltway buzz question from Politico’s http://www.politico.com/arenaArena editor asking for comment on the Washington Post assessment that the CBO assessment is “devastating” for healthcare reform.

While writing my response to Politico’s question, I got a call from the hospital billing department because my insurance company has yet to pay a claim from before my 4-month old daughter was born. Nevermind that we paid our premiums — which rose 30% during my pregnancy. Nevermind that my doctor ordered every test and procedure. My baby is already teething and we are still waiting for the hospital and the insurance company bureaucrats to decide whether her prenatal tests were covered. And we are the lucky ones — our baby is healthy. So count me unimpressed by those who say now is not the time for healthcare reform.

Universal healthcare can happen — it is just a matter of political will.

So the CBO tells Congress to find bigger changes, more reforms, and added cost savings — and the Washington Post — the paper that set up pay-to-play salons for “those powerful few who will decide” healthcare http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html and won’t tell their readers those deciders – says that’s “devastating.” Did one of “those powerful few” feel it was devastating? Do tell.

Meanwhile, we non-salon Americans favoring universal health care don’t find it devastating — just challenging — that reformers will have to try harder to find more savings as the bill works its way through Congress.

Today’s email from President Obama’s camp http://barackobama,.com lays it out:

as the final negotiations begin, desperate lobbyists and defenders of the status quo will distort, attack, and make every threat they can to stop reform. We’re fighting back with our biggest week yet in this campaign — knocking on doors, making phone calls, and putting real health stories on the air to make it clear why we need reform now.

I hadn’t intended to include my story today but the hospital called while I was typing so there’s a taste of the frustration. Want to start a family? Get insurance first — pregnancy is a pre-existing condition. Need prenatal care? Your sonogram must prove that insurance preceded conception. Doctor-ordered prenatal exams? The bureaucrats fight those well into the birth of your child.

We know this is hard — which is why we hired Barack Obama and the Congress to make the tough choices needed to fix it. I remain confident that they will succeed. But it won’t happen without us — change never does. Lift your voice at http://barackobama.com

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