| Ezra Klein has an article whose thesis is that as Americans don't directly pay the full cost of their healthcare since employers pay a large chunk, or they're on Medicare, Medicaid or some form of socialized medicine (the military and the Veterans administration) Americans aren't for radical change. The problem with this is simple enough. Polls find that a super majority of Americans, from 70% to 80% want a public option. A straight up majority want single payer. That certainly qualifies as radical change. Americans may not pay the full cost of insurance, but they are well aware of the full cost of health care. About 60% of all bankruptcies are caused by health bills, everyone who is self-employed knows the full cost, and people who get sick routinely had claims denied or lose coverage. The full cost of healthcare becomes evident when you get sick, and the health care you thought your insurance provided doesn't actually appear, or you have to fight tooth and nail for it. Everyone may not have experienced these costs and problems directly, but I'd be willing to lay long odds that almost no Americans haven't had them happen to a friend, co-worker or family member. And so, contra-Ezra, in fact Americans are ready for radical change. Even if you don't consider the public option radical, single payer is, and a majority of Americans want it. One might argue that that the intensity of desire for change is not there, that there haven't been huge crowds in support of health care change, but the problem there is Obama has been rather wishy-washy. He isn't offering single payer, which is what would get the hard left out in large numbers, and he isn't even willing to say that his bill must have a strong public option. His plan, and those offered by the House and Senate, have a mushy feel to them. "Might pass this, might not, and we aren't committed to it." It's hard to get worked up for mush and so, by and large, people aren't. But still, it's clear Americans want radical change of the health care system. It's the politicians who don't. Specifically Democratic conservative Senators like Baucus and Conrad, virtually every Republican Senator, and President Barack Obama, who ruled out radical change in the form of single payer and who won't insist on even a bad public option, let alone a truly robust one, are the ones who don't want radical change.
And yes, it's probably because American politicians don't feel the cost of health care: they're fully covered, and virtually all of them are millionaires. So, no, the problem isn't American citizens not having the appetite for necessary radical change. The problem is American politicians. |
