Daily Republic, The Other Side June 18, 2009


The fallacy of arguments against health plan

By Kelvin Wade | | June 18, 2009 15:47

Don't be fooled by GOP snake oil salesmen. President Obama's health care plan complete with a public health option should pass. No longer can we afford to let the 47 million uninsured satisfy their health care needs at the ER. No more can we fall prey to bogus claims of socialized medicine.

Ezra Klein ran a primer on this in the Washington Post last week explaining that 'socialized medicine' is when the government employs the health care professionals, and owns the hospitals and equipment. That describes the Veterans Health Administration yet I don't see any Republicans telling the excellent doctors and the brave wounded veterans who use those services that they're a bunch of socialist commies.

The Obama plan doesn't qualify as socialized medicine because the health care providers and facilities will remain private.

Well, then could it be a single-payer system where the government pays but doesn't own the facilities or employ the doctors? Medicare and Medicaid are single-payer systems. This is what Canada has.

The Obama plan isn't a single-payer system because Americans will still be able to choose to buy and keep their private insurance and keep their current doctor.

Obama's plan is a hybrid plan that has a public health option. People can keep their current insurance or switch to a government option, which would compete with private insurers and help keep costs down.

Too many Republicans are operating off GOP pollster Frank Luntz's talking points. They're parroting his fear mongering about having 'bureaucrats making medical decisions.'

What do they think we have now? Doctors aren't in charge of treatment. I'm staring at a denial letter as I type this written by some bureaucratic pencil pusher with a calculator who has never seen me, talked to me or ever grabbed my family jewels and said cough. That's what we have now.

Republican leader John Boehner recently said, '-if you like going to the post office and think it's the most efficient thing you have run into, then you will love the government-run health care system-' You mean the postal service where I can write 'John Boehner is an idiot!' on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope and for less than 50 cents have Boehner's staffer opening it three days from now on the other side of the country? Sounds pretty efficient.

But it's another red herring because under Obama's plan, the government won't run health care!

It's odd that we have no problem using public money for other things we deem important. No one is complaining about socialized law enforcement. We have socialized education and while it's often derided, it's educated most of us. Having socialized roads and bridges doesn't seem to stop people from driving on them every day. I'm not hearing too many complaints about our socialized military.

So we can use public money to save someone from a burning house but can't spend a dime to help with their burns? That makes sense to you?

But Republicans aren't afraid of a public health option because it would fail. They're afraid of it succeeding. Congress needs to pass the plan without a single GOP vote if it must. Peace.

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