Some Health Care Thoughts
This summary of health care in other countries helps to underscore how many ways there are to try to fix this. What I particular liked was the last section which highlights the diversity of approaches currently operating within the United States.
Of course, being for reform is not the same thing as supporting the current proposals. While the Republican Big Lie about Death Panels deserves condemnation—particularly because it incorporates a second lie, which is that the current system does not condemn people to death even when proper health care could save them—its success in generating unease has underscored several key weaknesses in the push for health care reform.
One is the problem that many Americans have decent health insurance, and many of them they fear its dilution more than they support its reform. Not everyone so blessed rejects the notion that good reforms would strengthen their current situation—otherwise there would be a lot less support than there is—but that is hard to feel certain about when the reforms themselves are still in flux. That is the second major problem with the effort toward reform. The result is the sort of unease that reduces vocal support.
This quote from a Republican strategist captures the problem well.
"The lack of a specific Obama plan has created an imbalance in the emotional energy between the two sides," Schnur said."So it's relatively easy for the opposition to find the least desirable aspect of any of those bills and go to town on it."
From the reform standpoint, there is a bit of good news here. It suggests that if decent reforms are passed, the support will be greater than the polls presently indicate. But I don’t know how many politicians with divided constituencies will find that sufficiently encouraging.
Another problem is that many Americans want contradictory things. This summary of an AARP survey is a nice example. Here’s the key quote:
Poll results indicated nearly 65 percent of those surveyed said they oppose increasing taxes to pay for covering the more than 46 million uninsured Americans, the business journal said. However, a majority polled said they believed all people should be covered and 73 percent said they are unwilling to see private health insurance premiums rise to cover those costs.
This is the sort of thing that Rick Shenkman loves to point out.
As I said above, from a standpoint of social justice and from a standpoint of cost controls, the present system is broken. What angers me about the Republican Party leadership is not that they have rejected Obama’s approach; it is that they have embraced that broken system.
The Republican leadership showed no interest in attacking this problem when they controlled the presidency and Congress. In fact, the manner in which they expanded Medicare to include prescription drugs arguably made it worse, because it did not allow the government to negotiate drug prices effectively. They now have made defeating any major Democratic proposal their defining issue for 2010. This is clearly indicated by their proposed “Seniors’ Bill of Rights,” which is dedicated to maintaining the broken status quo, including their own flawed approach to prescription coverage for seniors.
If Obama scales back--going for reforms that improve the current system but that fall short of the “public plan option” that many people, myself included, considered important--can he pass something good? ( This article summarizes what “good” might be.) Maybe. Not all Republicans want to follow their leadership on opposing any successful measures, and some of the wavering blue-dog Democrats could claim a victory. I would support it, too.
But it’s a messy situation out there. And I truly have no idea where we will go from here.