Deconstructing Healthcare Opposition
posted by jim | March 11, 2010
Rise Up; photo by jimcoli
Let’s Deconstruct Healthcare Opposition for a moment-
“Americans are happy with their healthcare”-This a phrase meant to induce amnesia. The goal is that EVERYONE should have healthcare and this ditty is meant to make those who have insurance feel insecure about healthcare change. It dismisses people who don’t have insurance.
The Government Takeover of Healthcare-
This talking point goes something like this: “It’s a government takeover. Government isn’t responsive to anybody.”
Remember Drive by Births. That great idea came from insurance companies that pregnant moms would go to the hospital, give birth, and mom and infant would leave the next day. Reducing hospital stays decreases costs and increases profit. You might call that rationing health care to boost income. It was public outcry and government action that changed this. Death panels usually come up about this time, but the other side uses the terms “end of life decisions.” And that really is about you making the decisions. I mean which side is for Choice, here, anyway?
Healthcare Money is NOT a Corporate Right-
“It’s a Government takeover of 1/6th of the economy” or “A public option is Socialism”. I suppose 1/6th of the economy (or whatever the actual number) is meant to give you a sense of a Government of monstrous proportion. Socialism…well, let’s look at what we’ve got. Free market healthcare? Well, let’s assume we have something close to that. The goal of markets is to maximize profits not give everyone healthcare. Now we must say, here, that there are principled people (particularly Libertarians) who do not aspire to cover everyone. We must agree to disagree on this point for the moment because I am only addressing the many healthcare opposers who believe that the free market is the American way to go. You know those folks who want to legislate the markets into covering more people even though the market approach is to funnel people into particular demographics where they can pick and choose. The real despots here are those who say that people can’t organize and form their own market (that was called the public option), a market of people called Americans; your friends and neighbors, aunts and uncles, sons and daughter, but also anybody-anybody you may not like. That may be the rub for some people-not all.
This position is characterized by Senator Orrin Hatch: “Congress has never crossed the line between regulating what people choose to do and ordering them to do it. The difference between regulating and requiring is liberty.” This consistently Libertarian statement from someone who is not a Libertarian is just puffery. These are the vultures who leaves the working poor (and those without work) to go without healthcare by limiting our choice to just markets.
To me it is inconsequential whether you believe in markets or you believe markets are greedy. Markets simply refuse (and are unable) to provide for the General Healthcare of our nation. Markets won’t go away when Americans have a right to create their own health care public option.
Corporations-
There are people who believe corporations are legal creations that provide elite privilege to a few and there are others (like the Supreme Court) who believe that corporations are just a collection of individuals. But there is another phenomena of corporations that creates a feudal wall in our society. The employees inside a corporation get favorable benefits, flexible spending plans, 401k matches, and maybe…a pension contribution. It is not generally recognized that law not markets force corporations to distribute these benefits somewhat equally (that’s a serious distortion of the word equal, I might add, most of the benefits go to a few within the company). The average employee may not be impressed by these benefits and their tax savings but they are unimaginable to working people who work in small industry and the working poor. But these people, who are more likely to vote, are essentially bought out of any interest in making political changes in healthcare for anyone else. In fact, talk of change makes them susceptible to political fear tactics. A public option would be a considerable weapon in weakening the power and privilege of corporations.
