Okay, a stack of napkins. But still, I think this is great:
(Yes, it’s a rather simplistic explanation, but it still carries more information than 98% of the people jabbering on about it do, I think.)
Credit to Shaun @ IsCool for highlighting this.
Okay, a stack of napkins. But still, I think this is great:
(Yes, it’s a rather simplistic explanation, but it still carries more information than 98% of the people jabbering on about it do, I think.)
Credit to Shaun @ IsCool for highlighting this.
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tx2vadem
The question that is bugging me is: if Americans want reform, where is the passion? Every year there is a sea of people that marches towards the Supreme Court to protest Roe v. Wade. Where is that on this issue?
The information I have seen on the public’s opinion just confuses me. They want reform, but they are happy with their own coverage (the current system). They support a public option, but depending on how you word the question. They want lower costs, but they don’t want to control costs. I’m lost.
MB
We’ve had 35 years to shake out Roe v. Wade. Health care reform? 10 years, if you’re *incredibly* generous. 3 years, in my honest assessment.
On a personal level, I didn’t give much of a shit in 1993, facing HCR v.1. I was young, covered, and healthy in the way that all invincible kids are. And really, I can’t say that it changed a lot in the following decade. And then I had a serious health event in 2003. Sporting accident, lots of broken things, much investigation and treatment required. I was lucky enough to have the near-mythical “gold-plated” health insurance through my firm. I wanted for *nothing*, and my sole concern was my own recovery. But in the course of that, I met and got to know an enormous number of people in my same position (injury/health-wise) who were pretty much fucked, because their health insurance wouldn’t recognize/address/sufficiently treat the injury. It was a massive wake-up call for me.
I’d like to think that part of it can be chalked up to aging and recognizing that yes, there are always going to be points in life in which you need to lean on someone, but a good part of it (for me) was a pretty brutal example of the dangers of the (no healthcare situation). And I kind of worry about that second part. I think that, even if we haven’t come to appreciate it for ourselves, a lot of us will come to appreciate it when we start sorting out the realities of the rest of the lives of our parents and others close to us.
LFS
That’s an interesting personal observation, MB. It is not that we do not know what we do not know, but that we do not know that we do not know. That’s something I too have come to a realization about as I have grown older, and it has changed my views on things like gun control and gay marriage.
As for the passion about healthcare, I think it is obvious that most people don’t see the government as a solution. They want change and reform, but they don’t want that kind of change and reform. Quite honestly, the public option would be an easier sell if government were more accountable and our politicians (in both parties) actually governed instead of filling their pockets.
tx2vadem
LFS, that’s ironic. Cause people say they love Medicare, and that is a single-payer system.
MB, I thought this argument on national healthcare has been going on for the entire 20th century. Or has it just diminished because of Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, Medicare Part D? I guess that is the answer I arrive at anyway.
LFS
tx2vadem, I don’t think they love Medicare — they just put up with it and would like something better. And to the people on Medicare, better does not mean throwing all the money they’ve paid into the system all these years into the public option where they have to compete for attention from the younger set. Older people know that when rationing occurs, and it will occur, the choice between giving them treatment and the choice between giving young children treatment will not turn out in their favor.
Amit
slide #46 is the most important and realistic to me. why we can’t start off with moving the tax incentives to the individual instead of employers is beyond me. why not fix what we can fix now?