Health care and crazy people
I am far from the only one who is kind of baffled by the recent spurt of crazy nutjobs showing up at town hall meetings and likening the Democratic health care plan to some sort of secret Nazi plot. Lots of people have tried to explain it, and I think a lot of the explanations have a bit of truth to them. There is a segment of society (largely white, rural, religious, etc.—typical Republican base) that is losing the power that they recently had, and they’ve bought into a mythology where they’ve always had that power and deserve to retain it. (It’s the “real America” stuff, along with older things like praise for “the heartland.”) To some extent, any remotely liberal policy Obama chose to start out his administration pushing for would have led to claims that he was “stealing our country” and things of that sort.
I think, though, that health care reform—particularly the way it’s being done now—is an issue particularly favorable to conspiracy theorists and nutjobs. That’s because it’s incredibly complicated. In some ways, if Obama was actually proposing nationalized or single-payer healthcare, it’d be better in this respect. Those are huge changes to the system, but at least they’re straightforward and easy to understand. Instead, what we’re getting is a messy patchwork system of fixes for the status quo. People are confused. Telling a crowd of people that you’re going to set up a “health care exchange” doesn’t really clear up the confusion. Saying that instead of a public option you’ll have a “health care cooperative” doesn’t help either. These phrases are stand-ins for complicated, messy policy proposals. Even if someone was willing to take the time to explain it, they’d be incapable, because there are several different plans floating around and no final proposal. Each plan differs on huge issues of policy. The same piece of policy might be good in one plan and bad in another, depending on what other policy decisions are made elsewhere in the bill.
I understand the general outlines of the proposals, but I definitely don’t understand all the details. Even I am not willing to put in the time necessary to understand things well enough to make a truly intelligent judgment on the matter. I support the reforms for two simple reasons. First, I know very well that the current system is awful. Second, I trust those proposing the reforms much more than I trust the opponents. Those reasons aren’t going to be enough to win over enough of the population to push borderline senators into voting yes. Democrats need to agree on some plan that at least 55 of them in the Senate are ready to vote for. Then, they need to consolidate all the proposals, come up with more clear ways to explain what they’re proposing, and really go out campaigning for it. If the public doesn’t know what’s going on, some are going to tune out, some are going to revert to partisan predispositions, and some are going to go batshit insane. That is not a good way to make policy.
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[...] The hand known only as “Z” stepped forward. “And the bit about figuring out who to trust on complicated issues like health care reform?” Z’s partner A. “Right. A larger hole this [...]
We can’t allow single-payer health care in this country; it could spread. Why next thing you know, there’d be a socialistic program to fight house fires, and roads between states would be supported by taxes. Socialism! Soooociaaaaliiiism!!!
For my part, I always trust the huge drug and health insurance companies. They have our best interests at heart, along with their wholly-owned right-wing politicians. Don’t they?