And so it begins. In the first week of March, barely more than one month as President of the United States, Barack Obama conducted a summit meeting to discuss health care reforms and rekindled the national debate. Then came Obama's announcement that he wanted to lift the eight-year ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Barely more than one week after the Washington summit, Gov. Jennifer Granholm was set to meet U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle for a Midwest Regional White House Forum on Health Care Reform — in Dearborn. In the land of the UAW and the near bankrupt, onetime world leaders of automotive manufacturing. In the land in which unions set the American standard for health care benefits and added more than $1,700 to the price of every American-made car. In the land where the average cost of a hospital admission is $10,495, compared to $7,208 in Holland/Grand Haven or $9,838 in Grand Rapids. The land where there are daily lessons of what not to do. Ground zero. |