Because, as usual-he has it all wrong. America will did not start to decline because of the health care vote tonight-it allowed that process to start ten years ago-or perhaps longer-when it failed to recognize the multi-polar world it had stepped into. The pace of that change was accelerated, when the country thought it could plunge into wars for worthless Arabs without thinking about it, or paying for it.
The people that know what the score is are James Fallows and David Frum.
First, Fallows:
For now, the significance of the vote is moving the United States FROM a system in which people can assume they will have health coverage IF they are old enough (Medicare), poor enough (Medicaid), fortunate enough (working for an employer that offers coverage, or able themselves to bear expenses), or in some other way specially positioned (veterans; elected officials)… TOWARD a system in which people can assume they will have health-care coverage. Period.
That is how the entire rest of the developed world operates, as noted yesterday. It is the way the United States operates in most realms other than health coverage. Of course all older people are eligible for Medicare. Of course all drivers must have auto insurance. Of course all children must have a public school they can attend. Etc. Such “of course” rules offer protection for individuals but even more important, they reduce the overall costs to society, compared with one in which extreme risks are uncontained. The simplest proof is, again, Medicare: Does anyone think American life would be better now, on an individual or a collective level, if we were in an environment in which older people might have to beg for treatment as charity cases when they ran out of cash? And in which everyone had to spend the preceding years worried about that fate?
Universal access health care is and should be a fundamental human right-other nations recognized that long ago. America is just starting to catch up-having a great healthcare system matters not a whit if I can’t afford to get access to it.
I-and more importantly the country-deserve better.
And as for the process to get here-well Frum has it right when he points out, the Republicans did nothing help themselves:
We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.
There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?
I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.
Fat, selfish, and beholden to whiny tea baggers is no way to go through life son.
Is food a universal human right? Shelter? Clothing? Where do I line up for my government-provided Nikes and Big Mac?
Just because the rest of the world does something doesn’t mean we have to dive off a cliff with them. Most of the rest of the world doesn’t have a Bill of Rights either…
Agree with Ray Breyer,
You only have to have auto insurance if you chose to drive, I know many people who live in NYC who don’t own cars, and don’t have auto insurance, soon will the govt require that everyone have auto coverage, so that it’s cheaper for those that drive.
Public schools exist but I know of dozens of folks who send their kids to private schools because the public schools suck, or they want their kids to have a religious based (Catholic) education. Will the govt close down these schools because they are too good and it isn’t fair that some can’t afford the tuition.
Still waiting for tort reform, all the lawyers in congress and the white house are railing about doctor salaries, willing to cut reinbursements, in order to contain costs, but not one of these lying, double dealing bastards has made one move to limit lawyer payouts in malpractice suits. How about for every friviolous law suit brought forth that is rejected by the court or jury the looser pays costs AND pays the medical provider who was sued, the amount that they were seeking in damages.
Rant over, I feel a little better
stein
As I have pointed out before-tort reform does not solve the root problem: the ability of insurance companies to fuck over their customers, whose only crime was asking the insurance company to pay out on its policy.
I stand behind this bill for three reasons:
1) Health care is a lot more serious than owning a car-and unlike a car, you don’t control when you get sick or injured.
2) It curbs the worst abuses by the insurance industry-who put us in this mess in the first place.
3) Americans can no longer afford the luxury of living as selfish pigs-while a lot of their fellow countrymen fall further and further behind.
If we can waste 1 trillion dollars fighting a war for worthless Arabs-we can actually invest in our own citizenry. And improve the standard of living for all-not just some.
People talk about their rights-well I have just as much of a right, to point out the hypocrisy that drives this country to do some pretty stupid things. I also know that universal access to insurance can work because I’ve seen it in two different countries.
And finally-I want no other person to have to go through the bullshit with insurance companies that my son had to go through.
Insurance is by definition an gamble between a company who bets you won’t get sick, and the consumer who believes that they will some day need the coverage or the payout, same for auto collision insurance, same for home owners. If everyone can get their medical bills paid anytime they get sick then lets call it want it is Universal Health Coverage.
If you get a DUI/DWI or have lots of accidents your rates go way up because you are a huge risk, or the Auto insurance companies can drop coverage because the gamble tips away from their favor.
If you try and get life insurance, which of course is actually death insurance and are a smoker, heavy drinker of have any number of life shortening health conditions you may be denied or have higher rates.
Don’t know want your son went through.