Paul Krugman explains Why Americans hate single-payer insurance. He points to a Washington Post story that included this quote: "At a recent town-hall meeting in suburban Simpsonville [SC], a man stood up and told Rep. Robert Inglis (R-SC) to ‘keep your government hands off my Medicare.’"
He doesn't spell it out that people are idiots and that the Republicans are lying to them but he does complain about the fear-mongering.
"We already have a system in which the government pays substantially more medical bills (47% of the total) than the private insurance industry (35%)."
If in 10 minutes Jon Stewart can get Bill Kristol to admit that the VA is a great health care system that's run by the government, imagine what could happen in say an hour long debate on healthcare between the sides (well by sides I mean the one trying to do something and the one lying to try to do nothing). Imagine if there was some forum, like an all day news channel, that could afford the time to have detailed debates between experts about health care. Or maybe some institution with a large building in our capitol where leaders could meet and discuss issues at length. Nah, they'd probably just screw it up.
1 comment:
The republican strategy is simple.
Like a defense lawyer in a murder case (death penalty) their only mission is to create reasonable doubt among enough voters.
It doesn't matter what the truth is, in fact, I don't think they can even admit the truth to themselves.....it would cause too much cognitive dissonance and then they might, god forbid, start to question things in an intelligent manner.
So they just get up there and say that government run anything stinks - I mean who likes the DMV. And who wants some government bureaucrat making healthcare decisions for you (after all, private insurers never deny coverage). And a public option will immediately and completely cause the private insurance industry to collapse (after all, who over 65 has private insurance). And rationing, don't forget to mention rationing (ever hear anyone use the word rationing in connection with private insurance, no, then it must not occur). And smart people will no longer be willing to work in medicine (that's why the doctors in Europe are soooo stupid). And you can't choose your doctor with public insurance(private insurers will never choose your doctor for you, they simply give you a list of doctors to choose from; love those lists). And old people will be denied care and be turned into soylent green (OK I made the Soylent Green part up). And we have the best healthcare in the world (cause we got more fancy MRIy and CAT scanny gadgets than those socialized medicine countries).
So please, won't some good god fearing, family values affirming, republican keep the goverment's hands off my medicare!
You can't make this stuff up.
I'm sure I've missed a few of the standard lies and misrepresentations, so please someone fill in the rest.
If it weren't so serious it would be funny. Unfortunately, this is a complex issue which, in fact, reaches far beyond just healthcare (e.g., international economic competitiveness), and average americans simply cannot or will not educate themselves sufficiently so as to make an informed decision.
Yet again, the republicans will find a boogey-man, in this case many boogey-men, and run on a platform of fear and lies.
This tactic got George W. Bush re-elected. Hell, compared to that, defeating true healthcare reform is a walk in the park.
Just goes to show that, like the financial crisis, the interests of the few (banksters, insurance executives, etc...) outweigh the interests of the many (you, I and everyone else who doesn't have $10,000,000 in a Swiss Bank account to spend on heathcare).
So it goes.
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