Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Phony Debate about Healthcare


Every election cycle we hear about everything a particular candidate stands for and wants to accomplish, be that in Congressional or in Presidential election races. Then we get to hear about it again once a year with the State of the Union address and its varied responses. Not one candidate is actually serious about the problems we face when confronted with a direct question. Take the healthcare debate which Republicans claim their message of repeal got them the elected majority in the House, yet if you separate the individual provision in the Healthcare bill; 61%* favor the prevention of health insurance companies dropping coverage for people who become seriously ill, 64%* favor yet 60%* oppose the mandate on the individual to buy health insurance. Exactly, people are stupid. Every pollster knows its how you phrase the question in determining how you can achieve your intended results. People like the good stuff but do not like paying for the good stuff. That is not really an earth shattering discovery. There is a reason the saying, you can’t have your cake and eat it too exists…people are like that! They want the whole damn cake. This situation is no different. The absurd reference of this healthcare bill being a government takeover is a fantastical creation from the mind of Frank Putz, o sorry Frank Lutz. This bill created a pool of 30 million currently uninsured individuals and delivers them to the insurance companies doorsteps, its like capitalism on steroids. It was a shitty bill when Bob Dole proposed it and it is still a shitty bill now that the Democrats have co-opted it. The whole debate is framed incorrectly. Make the debate a moral issue. Ask Americans if they feel that it is wrong that they live in a country where if you lose your job you lose your health insurance or if they feel it is wrong that they live in a country where insurance companies can drop your coverage because you’ve become too sick, how do they feel about living in a country where insurance companies can deny you coverage because of any pre-existing condition they feel warrants a denial? Framing the question morally will heed much different results because by in large people know shit from roses and right now were being sold shit and being told look closer its really roses. 
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”-Einstein 

*http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/12/27/rel17h.pdf

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Don't be dumb.