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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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 OPINION 
50

Health Care Opponents Aren't (All) Crazy

They aren't 'delusional' for equating reform with fewer choices

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(Newser) – There are definitely crazy black helicopter watchers amongst the screaming masses of health care foes, but most of the people filling town halls are “confused and concerned Americans,” writes Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. “And they have a point.” Robinson’s a self-proclaimed “true believer” in reform—we have a “moral obligation” to cover everyone—but "it is not illogical to suspect that services are going to be curtailed."

Reform is being pitched as a way to cut costs, and that should have been a separate debate. "Out-of-control health-care costs would be a looming crisis even if President Obama had never uttered the word 'reform,'" and if millions more people will be covered, the truth is we will have to spend less. “Citizens are not delusional” for concluding that paying doctors to discuss hospice care is a cost-cutting measure. Ultimately, "it's understandable why people might associate the phrase 'health care reform' with limiting their choices during Aunt Sylvia's final days."

Joan Korman, left, and Dawn Tabrizi, right, hold protest signs during a rally protesting government managed health care in Saratoga Springs, NY, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.
Joan Korman, left, and Dawn Tabrizi, right, hold protest signs during a rally protesting government managed health care in Saratoga Springs, NY, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
A man holds a sign as President Barack Obama's motorcade heads to a town hall on health care reform, Wednesday, July 29, 2009, near a supermarket in Bristol, Va.
A man holds a sign as President Barack Obama's motorcade heads to a town hall on health care reform, Wednesday, July 29, 2009, near a supermarket in Bristol, Va.   (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
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It's understandable why people might associate the phrase "health-care reform" with limiting their choices during Aunt Sylvia's
final days. - Eugene Robinson

The unvarnished truth is that services are going to have to be curtailed regardless of what happens with reform. We perform more expensive tests, questionable surgeries and high-tech diagnostic scans than we can afford. - Eugene Robinson

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50 comments
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DJM420
Aug 11, 09 12:20 PM CDT
nor all they all 'full-on' crazy... but most of them are... Reply
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0
Derni
Aug 11, 09 12:22 PM CDT
Heated debate brings out the best and the----- in human beings Reply
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+2
IN RESPONSE:
Bambi
Aug 11, 09 5:26 PM CDT
Let's try to bring out the best in ourselves by removing some doubletalk from the debate. Universal health care is not a ‘moral obligation', however, no law should be based solely on the dogma of some faction's dogmatic ‘moral' premises anyway. Universal health care can be thought of as a movement for the common good which is one of the glorious ends made feasibly only by the very formation of a society. It's an advantage that societal cooperation makes possible, so why not avail ourselves of it since we are united? Let's ask ourselves why we choose to unite as American's in the first place? We that live in America could all be independent in every way and compete for every resource like cavemen or animals, but we chose to organize a citizenry and call ourselves collectively ‘Americans'. We are organized for the advantages of doing so, and for no other reason. One of the great advantages of organizing is to see things done for the collective benefit that would not be accomplished if it were only up to individuals, like building public roads, etc. As such, the government organizes things like this for the mutual benefit of EVERYONE. Where there is benefit to everyone, therein we have a justification to limit our freedoms somewhat (or submit to taxes, etc.) to allow for governmental programs/policies of this sort. Health care is something that has become increasingly out-of-reach to average people, much like roads and fresh water would be if the government hadn't created systems to supply them. I see no reason to regard a road system, about whose governmental provision nobody is crying ‘communism', as more vital than health care for each individual, especially now that health care costs have become unreachable for average Americans. One doesn't need to play the ‘morality' card to defend the appropriateness of universal healthcare. It's just a practical good like other services the government provides. Don't private enterprise insurance companies profit from the same kind of socialistic principle anyway, i.e., everyone paying into a common fund which is dispersed according to need? With government participation, something for the necessary good of all (we're not talking about luxury items here) would no longer be profiting the few, thereby outpricing it for the many. Of course, those that demand exotic elective treatments, or who are hypochondriac will see a public system that is less accomodating to their demands, but eventually, Americans will have to realize that life and health are NOT a right, and the community does not have a ‘moral' obligation to see that everybody lives as well or as long as possible. Some of nature's directives will have to be restored eventually. We don't have the resources to fight all the aspects of nature about which we are uncomfortable. Nor should we always try. 'Death Panel' is another piece of right-wing double talk for something much less sinister and much more inevitable, reasonable and frankly, already with...
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+1
IN RESPONSE:
Bambi
Aug 11, 09 5:29 PM CDT
us in the present system. Universal healthcare just means equal access to care which does not exist now. It's OK if the compromise is that today's priviledged don't get the first class care they are used to. I'm sure that for them, there will be opportunities to pay for that. If they don't want to pay for it, then who do they think is paying for it now? Why do you think premiums are so impossibly high? Something as fundamental as universal health care speaks to an advantage that is at the foundation of why people would limit their freedoms to the extent that joining a citizenry causes. It's a trade-off, and it's a justifiable one. It's an advantage that benefits all from collective participation. It's neither 'communist' on the one hand, nor a 'moral' imperative on the other. It's just practical.
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Scrambles
Aug 11, 09 12:22 PM CDT
Obviously the reform is going to curtail the options, it has been shown that these many options are superfelous and a waste of money and man power, so why not get rid of them Reply
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+3

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