EricHoefler.com

A friend of mine posted a link to an article about the public option in the health care debate, along with this comment: “Keep it up, America…this health care fiasco can still be defeated…there’s still hope of Obama having a one-term/Jimmy Carter Presidency, too…”

I’ve known that he opposes insurance reform for a while now, but hadn’t yet heard any specific reasons from him, so I asked: “In all seriousness: can you outline your reasons for opposing insurance reform?”

His reply: “Simple: Selfishness. I have a job that provides health insurance. What’s to stop private companies from eliminating this option if there’s a govt.-run, socialized system? People have the ability in life to do what I did, and many others: Rise from a modest past, get educated, get a good job or two, and get health insurance as a result. I’m tired of the whiners who think the feds should run their life for them. Suck it up, and stop making excuses. Everyone has the ability to success…their messiah, Obama, has proven it. Plus, I don’t want my tax dollars to pay for health care for illegals, and we KNOW this will happen even if the liberals claim otherwise. My question: Why would you want federalized health care, besides it’s what Obama wants and you voted for him?”

To which I reply …

First, you have me backwards. I don’t support insurance reform (and this is about insurance reform, not health care reform) because Obama wants it. I voted for Obama because he ran on a platform that was in line with many of the things that concern me, including insurance reform, and because McCain was too in line with the previous administration on most of those issues. Obama is just another elected politician, and I hope he holds to his campaign promises, but my support of insurance reform has nothing to do with him personally. However, I suspect that many are now opposing insurance reform precisely because, and mainly because, he supports it.

Second, that your support can be summarized by “selfishness” doesn’t speak well of your position, though it does highlight the ironic pairing of conservatives and Christians that I mentioned a while back.

You say that your job provides you with insurance and you’re afraid that it will go away if there’s a public option. However, a major element of the current proposals is a requirement that all employers provide health insurance. But further, one of the primary goals of all of this is to significantly reduce the number of uninsured. Still, there are genuine economic and health care implications of the various proposals. No serious analysis of those concerns are occurring publicly, though, because they’re being drowned out by lunacy and paranoia. I’m not saying: “trust Obama, go big government!” I’m saying: “insurance reform is vitally important and the current system is unacceptable.” I’d like to hear more serious, grown-up-people discussions about the options. Instead, I mostly hear shouts of “No!” and hypocritical fear mongering.

I have to say, though, I don’t get why big-corporate insurance is afraid of competition. We have plenty of examples of private and public options living side-by-side and doing just fine.

To me, it seems like, on the one hand, conservatives support competition. On the other, they don’t want anything that could bring serious competition. One the one hand, government can’t run anything well. On the other, a government-run insurance plan would be too good and would drive out the private sector. Sheesh.

The bottom line is this: insurance reform has nothing to do with the feds trying to run other peoples’ lives for them. It’s about the stranglehold current insurance companies have on our health care system. We need to find effective ways to create competition, regulate corporate abuses, and ensure that all citizens can receive adequate health care. I don’t see how anyone can argue with these goals. Approaches? Sure. Goals? No.

You currently have a decent job, and therefore have insurance, and that’s great. However, I think you vastly over-estimate the ease with which your status is attainable by others and under-estimate how easily that position could be taken from you. If you were lucky enough not not get laid off during this recession, then you’re probably OK. Otherwise, you’re screwed, and it may not have anything to do with your work ethic. Many people work multiple jobs and still have no coverage at all. How does this fit with your “earn it” stance? Have people only earned it if they’re working white-collar jobs?

And Obama is no model for the “everyone can do it” myth. He came from a privileged background and had advantages that the vast majority can only dream of.

Also, there are no proposals to provide free insurance for illegals. However, from a purely selfish perspective, you should realize that you’re ALREADY paying for the health care of illegal immigrants and the uninsured, whether you like it or not. Whenever anyone without insurance, legal or illegal, arrives in an emergency room and can’t pay, you (the taxpayer) foot the bill. And these costs get rolled back into your insurance premium, driving it higher and higher.

And finally, I don’t want federalized health care. I want insurance reform. Those are not the same things, and no proposal being seriously discussed anywhere in Congress is seeking Federalized health care. Even the public option is merely a public insurance option. But your health care is already regulated … by insurance companies.

Moving beyond the issue of the uninsured, the self-insured are only somewhat better off. If you’ve ever tried to buy your own insurance, which many people have to do because their jobs don’t, then you realize how difficult it is to afford, how selective the companies are, how often the companies try to deny coverage, and how big a role “pre-existing conditions” can play.

And regardless of whether you’re self-insured or insured through your job, corporate greed stands between you and your doctor, and this greed will find any means possible to deny you coverage, not least of which is the pre-existing-condition excuse. And given the current setup, there’s no true “free market” in place to bring genuine competition, nor is there enough government regulation to control abuses or prevent people from being denied necessary treatment. I’m sure you’ve already heard the statistics: we pay more than any other advanced country and get less. And we don’t even bother to help ourselves by revising our unhealthy lifestyles.

So, selfishly, I don’t want to keep making insurance CEO’s rich by over-paying for sub-standard insurance. And unselfishly, I don’t want to support those that would deny making health insurance easier for others to obtain simply because I’m lucky enough to be in a position of privilege.

There’s a long list of reasons to support insurance reform (scroll through the links I’ve been posting for a few). For me, none of the reasons have anything to do with Obama or the Democrats. There are also a number of issues worth serious, considerate debate. However, very little of that is happening in the public sphere because of the disinformation being spread out of hate, fear, racism, and corporate greed … which make up the majority of all arguments “against health care reform” that I’ve heard. I really wish we could get to the necessary and serious parts of the debate, but I fear that won’t happen until it’s too late and we’re all stuck with a compromised bill that won’t do much to help anyone at all. Then who will we blame? Well, surely not ourselves …