*** This entry was originally posted to LiveJournal August 26, 2009 ***
Last night while scanning radio stations I heard yet another conservative talk show host railing against health care reform, saying--again--that the proposals under consideration would wrest your health choices out of your and your doctor's hands and place those choices in the hands of a nameless, unknown government functionary who has never met you or your doctor.
Three points come to mind.
1. This example illustrates my assertion that the primary commodity in which these conservative talk show hosts trade--and in which their devoted listeners wallow--is fear.
2. The host's assertion does not match my understanding of the proposals as they stand, but I'm not an authority on what the proposals actually do contain because I haven't read them. Therefore, I'm not going to render a definitive opinion on them. My guess is that this host and the rest of his ilk, as well as the other vehement opponents of the reform proposals, haven't read the proposals either and therefore don't have a clue what they actually say (in some cases, it's apparent that they truly don't care). Sadly, they show no qualms about registering opinions on the proposals anyway.
3. What do these guys think the insurance companies do now? I've personally had the experience of having my own doctor's recommendation overridden by a nameless, unknown insurance company functionary who has never met me or my doctor. I know I'm not alone in this. Insurance companies currently decide, routinely, what care people should and should not receive and ultimately therefore potentially whether people live or die. It seems to me that what many of the reform opponents claim to fear has already been happening, albeit in a different form, for a long time now.
Look, if there are real, documentable aspects of any health care reform proposal with which you disagree, then please do so. I'll do the same. Let's have a true discussion and a real debate, and let's hash out the best plan we can muster. Just please, don't violently rail against the whole concept for the pure sake of disagreeing, for partisan reasons, or for imagined fears--whether those be of socialism, "death panels," or inferior care. This debate, however it turns out, is too important for us to have it while we're irrationally wound up.
This article is a good one:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090826/sc_livescience/healthcaredebatebasedontotallackoflogic
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