Health Care Opponents Aren't (All) Crazy

They aren't 'delusional' for equating reform with fewer choices
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 11, 2009 12:12 PM CDT
Health Care Opponents Aren't (All) Crazy
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)

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." (More health care reform stories.)

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