Howard Dean has a good point on healthcare reform and the issue that a public option (which is looking more and more like a reality in some form) and many of the benefits of reform won't be made available to Americans until 2013. There's danger in that, since it has been so much in the public eye for the past year.

"If the Democrats want to hold on to their majority, you're going to have a problem," he said. That's because the public option wouldn't be up and running until 2013, long after the 2010 elections, meaning voters won't really see any benefits until long after the election. To address that problem, Dean said Democrats need to do something that will have tangible results by next summer. His proposal: opening up Medicare to people over the age of 50 so that a "certain mass" of people will already have benefited from health reform by the elections. "You need to have people sign up for this program by July 2010," Dean said.

That's an excellent idea from Dean. Progress on healthcare reform, after it has been so prominent in public discussion for so long, and has been stressed as so critical for the country, has to be made in a concrete way for voters to see that there will be change, that Americans lives will be made better. Because the part that hasn't been talked about much is that all of this doesn't happen until 2013. When that reality starts sinking in after all the voting and bill signing is over, there should be something in place to soften that blow.

Beyond the political benefits of expanding Medicare to more older workers, it'd be smart policy.

Update: Link to story added above. Sorry about that, folks.