THE BIG LIES ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM
Democrats in general and liberals in particular love to spend hours exploring the minutiae of any issue. Their idea of heaven is Bill Clinton expounding Castro-like for hours on end about any topic, the more details the better.
Republicans understand that most folks prefer to cut to the chase because deep down in their heart of hearts they assume that change is bad. They just want to know how bad it will be. The first points in any debate will always go to the guy who taps into that sentiment. And if he can do it in 5 words or less, game over.
On health care reform, Republicans have done a masterful job of reducing a complicated issue to a series of bumper stickers that play on our worst fears. As always, they use the tried and true big lie technique, spiced with a generous dash of half-truth as all the best lies are.
Socialized Medicine. For most folks, socialized medicine means we all get our health care from a single source (the government) instead of picking our own private health care insurer. That can’t be good. Well, it is good enough for every American over the age of 65 for whom Medicare is the primary provider. It is good enough for every citizen who gets Medicaid. It is good enough for every member of the American armed forces who have had a 100 percent socialized medical care system ever since anyone can remember. Yes, Virginia, the government can do health care and for the most part it does a decent job of it.
Bureaucrats Will Decide Your Health Care. Now we know for dang sure that can’t be good. Hello, what do you think is happening now? How many times has your doctor told you he has to get an okay from the health insurance company or that he flat out can’t prescribe a medicine or perform a needed procedure because the insurance won’t cover it. Case in point. I needed surgery to correct a deviated septum. My surgeon called me in the afternoon before the surgery so that he could take a picture of my nose in order to prove to the insurance company that he wasn’t sneaking in a rhinoplasty. The bureaucrats are already running things. It should come as no surprise that the insurance companies want to keep their bureaucrats in charge.
The Government is Planning to Kill Off Seniors. This one is a beaut. The source of this is a rather innocuous section in one of the versions of the bill that requires doctors to talk to older patients about the importance of having a living will. Somehow this has morphed into a government requirement that doctors plan your death. Finally we have a lie that is so big and so transparently false that it can’t stand up to any form of scrutiny. Unfortunately, the idea has been put out there and a lot of seniors are scared. The people pushing this lie are no better than scammers who talk old folks into getting unnecessary roof repairs or buying life insurance they will never collect on.
If health care reform fails or doesn’t live up to expectations it will be because Democrats couldn’t come up with their own bumper sticker to redefine the issue in a way that average Americans could understand. The liberal in me may prefer more substantive debate, but the realist in me understands that is not the right prescription to cure what ails the Democrats.
August 2, 2009
| blog comments powered by Disqus |
Tags:
Helath Care Reform
Socialism
Republican Party
