Second-cup-of-coffee

Health care reform

I am not going to pretend that I understand the intricacies of the health care debate. I do know that something needs to happen. When I started in “the real world” about a decade ago, it was pretty common to have health care fully covered by your employer. That now seems about impossible to find. And this is just in the span of a decade.

One thing that bothers me, though, is how fast and loose people on the right use terms like “socialism.” On one hand, we hear how a public option for health care insurance would be a huge intrusion of the government into the private sector. Yet, these same people will talk about how terrible it would be to cut Medicare, a government program. For these people who claim that Obama and Democrats are socialists, will they just come out and call for an end to other socialist programs like public schools, public roadways, flu vaccination programs, insurance on bank deposits… the list goes on. I never hear it explained why government’s intervention in some areas is okay but in other areas it is nothing short of the fall of capitalism.

I don’t think that anyone can honestly claim that the healthcare system, as is, is working well for middle class and lower class America. And, so, it looks like government will have to get involved. So this pure ideological argument from the right seems like a waste of time to me. Haven’t we already realized that a pure market approach is not going to solve this problem and the government is going to get involved? So let’s talk about the specifics of how the fix the problem instead of trying to derail the reform effort.