Opinion

Hope for a real debate

Maybe President Obama has gotten the message, after all.

After weeks of angry town-hall meetings and plummeting poll support, Obama went before the nation last night and — finally — kicked off a serious debate about health care in America.

Better late than never, we guess.

For sure, the president took numerous partisan pot shots and repeatedly impugned his critics’ motives.

“Instead of honest debate,” he said, “we have seen scare tactics. Some have dug in to unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise . . . And out of this blizzard of charges and counter-charges, confusion has reigned.”

Actually, he might well have been talking about himself.

In his speech, after all, he warned that, absent reform, “Our deficit will grow, more families will go bankrupt, more businesses will close, more Americans will lose their coverage when they are sick and need it most and more will die as a result.”

Scaremonger, heal thyself.

Politics aside, the speech was chock-a-block with profoundly disingenuous promises. He essentially pledged a radically revamped private health-insurance system married to a “public-option” look-alike for the “uninsured” — all of it to be paid for with savings recovered from rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” in the present system.

Good luck on that.

Still, Obama did seem serious about wanting to begin a conversation about recrafting America’s relationship with health insurers.

That’s a conversation worth having.

He even showed some willingness to embrace Republican ideas — such as addressing medical-malpractice lawsuits, which drive up health-care costs and lead to wasteful medical procedures.

Finally, Obama went out of his way to avoid insisting on a government-sponsored health-insurance plan — the most contentious part of his agenda.

Yes, he argued forcefully for it. But he also said, pointedly, that the public option is only a means to an end and “we should remain open to other ideas.”

One thing Obama said is indisputable: “There remain some significant details to be ironed out.”

No kidding.

But maybe — just maybe — he and his fellow Democrats will now engage in the open and good-faith debate he says he’s seeking.

It’s a healthy sign, at last.