The Case for Reform? Which Reform?
In closing 2009, the editors at the New York Times make a “case for (health care) reform”. They build their case on the well documented fact that millions in America are uninsured, that the for profit insurance sector is getting richer as more and more Americans go bankrupt because they cannot pay their medical bills, and that the “political timing is right” because the Democrats have the House, the Senate and the White House.
But the question remains, will “reform” Democrats-style save the day? And how exactly will it do it, and on the back of whom?
The best rebuttal of the New York Times position (which in this case reflects the position of the Democrat majority and the White House) that I could find was written by Dr. Don McCanne, senior policy analyst at Physicians for a National Health Program. Dr. McCanne argues compellingly that “the Times doesn’t get it”. It is well worth reading in its entirety.
The only point I can add to this otherwise brilliant analysis of the bill is that it is important to not lump “opponents of reform” in the same bag. And one should be weary of those who talk about “enemies of reform”, using emotionally loaded terms to substitute for good arguments and relevant evidence.
After all, there could be disagreements about whether administering aspirin to a patient is the right thing to do or not, but one person may argue that aspirin is the wrong thing to do because aspirin is never useful, and they would be wrong – it is very useful for some things — while another may argue that aspirin is useless because the patient has cancer, and they would be right – aspirin is useless in the treatment of cancer.
So while Radical conservatives argue that reform Obama/Congress style is bad because it would get “big government” between patients and doctors, the Medicare for All, single payer community argues that the House and Senate bills are bad because they will lock us in the grip of for-profit health insurers for years to come, by making it a federal crime not to buy their products (and even subsidizing with taxpayer money the buying of their products), while failing to control costs, and leaving millions uninsured or underinsured.
So is there another way to think about reform? Of course there is. It is called social insurance and it has been adopted beginning in the late 19th century by every other industrialized economy with the glaring exception of us (yes, U.S.!).
The time to demand real change and to increase the cost on our representatives of not listening to ordinary Americans has come, and it is now.
Health care students in California can still join single payer advocates in Lobby Day, on Monday January 11. For more information and to sign-up for the two-day event click here.
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