Hey folks. Sorry it's been so long. A long-distance move was the initial problem. Lately, the great inhibitor has been the utterly helpless feeling that nothing I say could possibly make people any less stupid than they apparently are. A friend shared a quote recently from a comedian named Jimmy Dore: "You can't reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into." And that, really, is the problem here. Liberals can't win these big societal debates because we traffic in reason and deliberateness, whereas Conservatives traffic in faith and gut-level reactions. Conservatives accept on faith the absolute validity and truthfulness of the voices they've chosen to listen to. Once their political messiahs have spoken, contrary voices may as well be trying to convert them to Islam. So if Sarah Palin says there will be death panels, there will be death panels. Never mind that she once supported the same program she is now trying to demonize. If Glenn Beck says Obama is personally going to come to your bedside and smother your with a pillow when you turn 65, it will be so and it must be opposed. So really...what's the point? Barney Frank hit the nail on the head when he told a town hall protester that "trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table." It really is that useless.
Still, while I can't muster a full-throated argument about the healthcare right now, I can't stop myself from pointing out a few details that I don't think have been adequately clarified for the American people - not for the ideologues, but for the average, working-class Joe Republican who has been frightened by all the scare tactics. Here goes...
1. If you have "free" health insurance through your employer, IT IS NOT FREE. In fact, it is a tax on your salary, just like any other tax, except that a) you don't see it being deducted from each paycheck and b) a large portion of that tax is ending up in the pockets of corporate shareholders and executives. If you have a family, that insurance is costing your employer somewhere in the ballpark of $10,000 per year. So ask yourself this question: If you had two comparable job offers on the table, both offering the same salary, but one offering health insurance, which would you choose? If you answered "the one offering health insurance," you did so because they might as well be offering you $10,000 more in salary. In effect, they are. And then they're taxing you $10,000 to provide you with health insurance.
Your beloved capitalism is at play here. Dollars are dollars, whether they go into your paycheck or into your health insurance. If it became unnecessary for employers to provide health insurance, those surplus funds would go right back into luring the best candidates on the market - which means higher wages and better benefits for you.
Now you're saying "But the guv'ment would have to raise my taxes! I hate taxes!" Okay...but the government can do health care without regard for profit. This means that they don't have shareholders who want to keep a large portion of your health insurance premiums for themselves. This means that the government can (and does) do health care at a lower cost to the consumer. So if the government has to tax you a fraction of that $10,000 in order to provide you with the same care, is it really the kind of evil tax you're used to bitching about? Is it really a tax at all? Or is it actually a discounted price on health insurance?
2. When people tell you that the government is going to stand between you and your doctor and tell you that you CAN'T HAVE certain procedures, they're bald-faced lying. What the government will do, however, is tell you that certain procedures are NOT COVERED. This will not in any way prevent you from purchasing that procedure with your own cash money on the open market. They will do this when medical science and statistics reach the conclusion that the procedure you seek is not effective and/or cost-effective.
The government will, in other words, do exactly what private insurers already do, except that the government will not pay an army of specialists to find technical, non-medical reasons to deny you coverage. The government will not deny you coverage. The government will not drop you from your plan. The government will not squeeze you for higher and higher premiums while looking for ways not to settle your claims.
But fine. You don't want to pay less for heath care? Well, thank you. Thanks for ensuring that I will continue to pay $300 or more per month for insurance that saddles my family with a $5000 per person deductible. Thanks for ensuring that I will continue to ignore the lump behind my left ear and the moles on my wife's back because our son had to have $5000 worth of surgery last year and we simply can't afford to find out whether we need surgery ourselves. Thanks for ensuring that my employer - a not-for-profit arts institution can't afford to provide me with health benefits despite my already lower-middle class salary.
Thanks for taking this deeply principled stand against...what? Against something that might just help me a little more than it will help you? Against something that might help some people a lot more than it will help you? You're so averse to letting other people get a little help that you aren't willing to accept a little yourselves?
