Going postal
John Cole hits the proverbial nail on its proverbial head:
If I hear one more breast-beating “THE INSURANCE COMPANIES WIN” tweet or post I am going to go postal. We have a system of private insurance. Guess what- no matter what we do short of an American NHS the insurance companies will win, because they are for profit industries. If they don’t “win,” they cease to exist. That is what “for profit” means.
So if you think there is the political willpower in the Senate to install an NHS, and all we need to do is have Obama use his bully pulpit more and fire Rahm Emmanuel, then the “INSURANCE COMPANIES WIN” posts make complete sense.
If you don’t think there is said willpower for an American style NHS, guess what, you’re an idiot and the insurance companies are going to win anyway, because the status quo is a win for them.
Fucking deal with it and decide whether or not this current bill helps people. I’m by no means thrilled with it, but I think it is a step in the right direction. And for the record, after watching this clusterfuck for the past year, I am now firmly of the belief that the only thing that will solve our problem in the longterm is a British style NHS.
So – will Howard Dean and co. kill healthcare reform?
Oh – and check this out for a good laugh.
There definitely is a teachable moment here about not making the perfect the enemy of the good. And frankly, I think Howard Dean is being nuts. At the same time, we need to be careful not to be so amenable to compromise that our policy platform dissolves into mush.
Personally, I’m less inclined to be as hotheaded about it as Cole, but I largely agree with him. Still, I think that this is a pretty good explanation of the anger. But anger is no excuse to keep us from passing reforms that can actually help people.Report
Freddie – agreed. More and more the way this thing is headed I think it’s time to push for the end of the filibuster. That’s the culprit at the heart of failed (or compromised, watered-down) legislation on both sides of the aisle.Report
I think it’s worth noting that the “public option” was never really supposed to be the center piece of the reform effort. It was always the other things: national health exchange, guaranteed issue, mandate, spread caps, MLR limits, etc.
The reason there’s “no fight” is because the public option was never the most important component of reform and was made into something of a decoy so that the opponents would expend their ammunition against it. The debate about the public option basically did what it was supposed to do. It took the bullet so the substantive reforms would actually stay intact.
And that’s a good thing. People who scream and cry foul about its demise are entirely missing the point.Report