H -°, L 7° | Tomorrow: 
H 17°, L 4°“Keep your government hands off my Medicare!” It’s such a great line. So sparse and economical. Something that Hemingway or Shakespeare could have been proud of. It captures perfectly the sense of desperation that’s driven otherwise sensible suburban tea-partyites to throw bricks through office windows and threaten the lives of congresspeople. In its unassuming simplicity is revealed the extent of misinformation, ignorance and sheer inanity that have fueled the past year’s most rancorous debate.
Not that debate is the right word; debate requires an element of rational discourse with the occasional and judicious application of fact. What we just saw was more like Spartacus than Roman Senators. From death panels to armed protesters to “you lie,” the health care reform fracas has been nothing short of a no-holds-barred assault on civility in public discourse and the presumed intelligence of the American populous.
So, when last summer an angry constituent commanded Representative Robert Inglis of South Carolina to keep his “government hands” off of the government-run health insurance otherwise known as Medicare, it was in keeping with the general spirit of national lunacy. But what this unnamed citizen was remarkable for was his ability to, in seven words, summarize better than any other the assumptions, anxieties and inconsistencies of the entire anti-reform movement.
There are two possible lessons to draw from his outburst. The first goes something like this: The whole political circus that is the reform debate has nothing whatsoever to do with health care. In this view, the sheer ignorance exhibited by Rep. Inglis’s constituent, while perhaps an extreme example, demonstrates that reform opponents don’t actually care about health care per se, they simply oppose liberal ideas.
People, this view goes, are angry about the direction the country is taking. They are angry about having a non-white president. They are fearful of what the nation will look like in 20 years when whites of European descent are a minority group. They are a mindless mob, manipulated by right wing hacks into a frenzied rabid morass that will attack anything perceived as a threat to the status quo. For this they blame, in large part, the scaremongering and constant flow of misinformation disseminated by Limbaugh, Fox News and other conservative mouthpieces.
It’s a compelling argument, and factually there’s little to disagree with. However, the link between racist anxieties and a willingness to accept Fox-style misinformation, while not entirely imaginary, is a myopic and incomplete explanation for the depth and vehemence of opposition to the law.
Which brings us to a second understanding of Rep. Inglis’ constituent. There is a powerful ambivalence toward health care in the United States stemming from a national failure to adequately or clearly answer a fundamental question — is equal access to medicine an American right? Answering in the affirmative would be an invitation for the government, as guarantor of our rights, to take a far more active role in paying for, if not providing national medical care — yet this has certainly not been the outcome of debate thus far. But it’s not exactly not a right either. After all, if any of us showed up at a hospital with a life threatening injury we would expect to be taken care of without having to demonstrate an ability to pay for treatment.
The “keep your government hands off my Medicare” crowd play out this ambivalence, on the one hand demanding a continued entitlement to free health care while in the same breath denying a roll for the government in providing to others that same service. Less than selfishness though, this inconsistency exposes anxieties over the implications of a government guaranteed right to medicine.
Recognizing equality of care for all as a right would also require us to confront directly the fact that resources are finite. Providing for everyone will mean that some people get less than they otherwise might. There is also a fear that a claim to health care services is less strong if it is not ‘earned’ in some way. Anti-reform activists played heavily on these anxieties in their warnings of rationing, limited choices and government takeovers.
Resolving this ambivalence will require a difficult national conversation that will make the debate of the last year seem amicable. That we have made it this far without directly addressing the issue is remarkable, but cannot go on forever. The passage of the health care reform law is a first step. But it will remain only a theoretical guarantee unless a convincing case can be made to Rep. Inglis’ constituent, and all who share his ambivalence, that health care really is an American right. Making that case will not be easy or pretty, but it is the only way forward.
Geoff Jara-Almonte ([email protected]) is a third year medical student.
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“of the American populous.” - It’s “populace,” not “populous!”
“They are angry about having a non-white president. They are fearful of what the nation will look like in 20 years when whites of European descent are a minority group.” - No, whites are very much the majority and will still be the majority 100 years from now. Don’t rip your pants, kid! And no, they aren’t angry about having a non-white president, moron, they’re angry that he hasn’t done a damn thing to fix the economy! In case you haven’t noticed, there are millions of voters who voted for Obama and those voters are just as pissed as anyone else. Slowly but surely, Americans of every political stripe are waking up to the fact that neither major party actually cares about the American people.
Stick with medicine and leave the rest of the issues to the people who are finally fed up with politicians. Condescending smart-asses like you have no right to decide what’s best for the rest of us.
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This has got to be one of the worst opinion pieces the BH has ever printed! This dude can’t even spell correctly. And he’s a med school student!
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When I read this drivel, I assumed you were an undecided first-year student. To read that you’re a M3 is scary.
About 99.5% of people opposing Obama’s version of health care reform are not racist. Some people just don’t think that the law will actually help Americans and others are concerned about the long-term cost of the law (if you think the deficit will be reduced, stop your rotation immediately and enroll in econ 101).
Additionally, this column pretty much rips off Frank Rich’s drivel from the New York Times.
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The Anti Civility, Anti American Crowd must be addressed!
Geoff, You assert racism, ignorance, foment of the ‘mob’, scaremongering, and dissemination of false information. You offer no factual evidence but conclude that “It�s a compelling argument, and factually there�s little to disagree with.” Is this your vision of civil discourse? Comity? Bipartisanship? Your commentary is derogatory, demeaning, deceitful, divisive, and despicable! Your faux civility fails to conceals your artful and deliberate disingenuousity. You have all of the civility of a rapist. Your aren’t seeking civil discourse when you use every defamatory and divisive propaganda tool applied by the Obama Progressives to divide our nation…in a single myopic perspective.
You and the Obama Socialists set young against old, race against race, women against men, city against country, north against south, children against parents, socialist elites against “ignorant red neck hillbillies”, all while feigning a desire for “civility”. These are the 2 faced deceits of Progressive Democrats that cause honest men and women to rise in protest and shout “You Lie!”
The question is not “Is health care a right?” The question is “Is personal freedom a fundamental right and responsibility for each American Citizen?” We answered this question back in 1776 with an emphatic “YES!” Didn’t you get the Tweet, Geoff? As a Citizen, your responsibility is to take care of yourself and your family. Stop your marxist mewling and socialist seizing of income from the hard working citizens that earned it. Get off your self serving butt, accept your responsibilities like a man, and earn your share of the American dream.
Finally, we have judged Barack Hussein Obama on the content of his character and found him to be profoundly lacking in the personal integrity and professional experience required for the office of President of the United States of America. In this, we embrace the teachings of Dr. King. It is time for you and the race baiting Progressive Democrats to grow up and do the same.
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Don’t listen to these fools. your thoughts in this article are mine exactly. I’m guessing this is a Fox News statistic, “About 99.5% of people opposing Obama�s version of health care reform are not racist.” Can you seriously look at the members of the Tea Party and tell me 99.5% of those people aren’t racist, and really how does one measure racism but by feeling it? Whether you choose to see it or not there is an inordinate amount of hatred (not logic) that radiates from those who oppose the Obama Administration’s Health Care Reform. For example some of the replies made towards this writer, “You have all of the civility of a rapist,” and “Stop your marxist mewling and socialist seizing of income from the hard working citizens that earned it. Get off your self serving butt.” I mean doesn’t this just scream intelligence, understanding and logic, and the worst part is that this statement comes is from a seemingly articulate individual. Keep fighting the good fight Geoff as it is sometimes a burden to be gifted with logical and unprejudiced ways of thinking and believing.
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Stop the unfounded racist allegations. It shows a bigoted, elitist, and willfully offensive persona, unwilling to embrace the totality of diversity or even the basic facts.
Black conservative tea party backers take heat http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9ETR1380&show_article=1
And Have A Rainbow Day!
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To the prior comment: did you really just attack the writer’s civility and call him a “rapist” in the same paragraph?
I think the general point of the column is on target. The fundamental question is if health care is a right or privilege. The prior commentator seems to believe the latter, but I think that there are widely divergent views to this and this is exactly the debate that needs to happen.
The secondary question is: should anyone in America ever go bankrupt due to health care costs?
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@0c2e94e5: ObamaCare ensures EVERY American will “go bankrupt due to health care costs.” It�s always hard to know with student newspapers, but I�ll assume you aren�t a taxpayer yet. That means as a citizen right now you owe the government $40,000 (for being a citizen) to cover your share of the debt. When you become a federal income tax payer (and I hope you do someday)� and you can take away all the people that don�t pay taxes (because of their wages or ages)� then you find out you the federal taxpayer are really on the hook for $100k. That�s not a joke, that�s the number. Then if you kept our national accounting like GAAP accounting you would find that we (and one day you) have a liability of about $500,000 per tax payer when you look at future Medicare and Social Security liabilities. The health care reform didn�t mention that states have to pick up a portion of Medicade expense of all those people about to come onto the system, so our state taxes must go up or programs get cut �like more school cuts.
I feel like people don�t understand that this is real money that we are responsible for paying back to the holders of American Bonds. Unless they�re deluded enough to think Chinese bond holders will �forgive� this debt, please learn a trade your Chi-Com overlords will value to avoid the work camps.
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Thanks for the reply. I agree that the most compelling argument against the health care plan is its cost in the face of our deficits/debt (which I’m sure you’ll agree both parties are to blame for). For the record, I am a UW Med School alum, and am definitely on the federal tax rolls.
That said, I also do maintain that no American ought to go individually bankrupt secondary to health expenses and I personally am willing to pay higher taxes and take less in reimbursement in order to achieve this goal. Doing this obviously costs money, which I agree is real and has to come from somewhere.
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This article is total crap! OK, the blue states were on right track with that blue state secession back in 2004. Let the red states secede this time. We’ll go our own seperate way and the blue states can pay off the humongous debt to the Federal Reserve they seem to love so much. We’ll do just fine. And look what’s happening to the blue states. In the northeast, they got flooded out big time. On the West Coast, they got hit by an earthquake and the seismologists out there say there’s more to come. Meanwhile, in the heartland, we only have to worry about a little Spring flooding, which came and went with hardly any damage at all.
God has poured out His wrath for their sins and they aren’t even smart enough to know it. Oh, I forgot, they’re all atheists. Sorry.
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Hey Geoff, it’s populace, not populous! Dude, you’re a third-year med student. You should know that world already!
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“People, this view goes, are angry about the direction the country is taking. They are angry about having a non-white president. They are fearful of what the nation will look like in 20 years when whites of European descent are a minority group.”
You deserve to be shoved in a cannon and shot to outer space for such a bold assumption.
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Come do your internship at the MED in Memphis, and then we’ll see how you feel about free health care. This article was written by someone who grew up in a very small bubble.
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The author writes about anger and irrationality among anti-reformers and in return he gets a thread filled with FoxNews talking points, made-up statistics, ad hominem attacks, religious screeds…you people couldn’t playact being angry and stupid any better.
Calm down everybody, nobody is going to be bankrupted and have their freedoms revoked because of this bill. Good lord, you’d think we just waged an offensive war on false pretenses or something.
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You did wage an offensive battle based on false pretenses. The result is ObamaCare. But that was just the first battle in a now enjoined war. As you and the progressives are dimly becoming aware, you have awakened and thoroughly angered the normally silent majority by rahmming socialist ObamaCare through, using every crooked political maneuver and bribe possible to scrape together sufficient prostituted votes in House and Senate. That is Obama’s and the Progressives legacy and that is their millstone as well.
November 2nd is coming for all progressive democrats… and so are we.
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I don’t understand your opposition to the way the bill was passed. There was sixteen months of wrangling. Votes were purchased and deals were made. Some congressmen only did what’s right after they got what’s good for their district. Which makes this different from any other bill ever signed…how?
Matter of fact: “ObamaCare” is a fairly centrist plan that was initially envisioned by Mitt Romney. If you think its socialist, compare it to the French healthcare system and witness the huge disparity. The plan calls for a reform of the most egregious insurance practices, and in return gives insurance companies a wider pool to cover all the sick people they will be forced to cover. It is not a great plan. There’s no tort reform, which could save some serious money, and there are loopholes that will allow insurance companies and individuals to get over on Uncle Sam.
However, I am confident that the cost of not acting at all on this issue (as Bush did), or enacting the seriously shortsighted McCain plan would have exceeded the costs we now face. (And by “we” I mean our wealthiest citizens, whom I thank for ensuring their fellow man doesn’t get sick and die from it.)
Finally, I look forward to coming elections. The dems will likely lose some seats which will bring a bit of balance to our government. However it seems that the more the silent majority learns about the FACTS (hint: not much of those on TV news) of the bill, the more they like it:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-03-23-health-poll-favorable_N.htm
Not that polling determines if something is good or bad, its worth noting that after all the hoopla and dire predictions of the end of America as we know it, people are comfortable with the main points of this bill, it will ease the burden of healthcare costs on the middle class, and perhaps most importantly its a step towards really restructuring the insurance industry around non-predatory practices.
Ultimately I believe that your rage over all this is simply that your voice is becoming more and more irrelevant as US demographics swing increasingly to the left. You won’t win me over by calling names and attacking the office of the President. Have respect and respect will be given.
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These Leftist slanders of tax revolts are hypocrisy on stilts! It was ObamaCare union-goons (inspired by ObaMao’s angry calls to “punch back twice as hard”) who actually assaulted black protester, Ken Gladney, while screaming racial epithets. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,538799,00.html
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And then there were the union goons who used actual pitchforks and burning torches in their “demonstrations”. Just imagine what the lamestream media would have reported if a Tea Party had done that?
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When I see what Obama is doing to this country, how he is treating its citizens, I’m reminded of the man who mugged me. I think that both are constitutionally incapable of seeing our humanity. And each day that Obama is in office, he communicates this same deadly message to the masses — that opponents are not human.
This would explain the burgeoning of hate and even violence towards those who deign to disagree. And why Tea Party members and conservatives are being targeted, as well as entire countries like Israel.
And this would illuminate why Obama is unfazed while the economy crashes. And why he cavalierly demonizes Israel, putting millions of Israelis at risk. And it explains why Obama mocks conservatives who are legitimately worried about this administration’s violating fundamental rights.
But how could Obama see us? Did anyone in his childhood ever see him?
Did little Barry’s needs factor into his mother’s decision to shlep him to Indonesia to live with her and her alcoholic second husband? And how much maternal love was on display when she dragged him back home to Hawaii and then abandoned him for good?
Did Obama’s humanity matter to Grandpa Stanley and Frank Marshall Davis when they sat around drinking, talking trash talk about women, and telling dirty jokes to the discomfited little Barry?
What was Stanley thinking giving Barry over to Davis, an alleged pedophile and Communist, for mentoring? And did Davis do the most unspeakable act of violation and dehumanization to Barry, as the teenage Obama hints at in the poem, “Pop”?
Pop takes another shot, neat,
Points out the same amber
Stain on his shorts that I’ve got on mine, and
Makes me smell his smell, coming
From me; he switches channels, recites an old poem…
Asks for a hug, as I shrink…
For someone to survive a difficult childhood intact, he needs at least one person to see his humanity. It’s best if the person is a close relative, but a child can endure with the help of someone else. An attentive coach, counselor, neighbor, or teacher can work wonders.
Who mirrored Obama’s humanity back to him? Who looked into the young Barry’s eyes and reflected back the man he was meant to be? Who honored and cherished the human being inside?
I’ll tell you who — no one. His family groomed him and sculpted him. They projected onto him who they wanted him to be. In later years, other egotistical father figures, like Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers, scripted his Messiah-like role.
But was there someone who loved and honored Obama for who he was? No.
And that’s why Obama cannot see you or me. He cannot respond to the pain and suffering he is inflicting. He may, in fact, derive satisfaction by the act of revenge.
Years ago, I came face to face with a man who also didn’t know that I existed. He had no qualms about injuring me and leaving me lying wounded in the middle of the street
I wasn’t a person to him. I was nothing. This is where all evil begins: the dehumanizing of another.
From what I have seen this last year, Obama shows no ability to walk in another person’s shoes. This would require empathy and sensitivity, traits that are nowhere to be found.
Frankly, every time I see Obama, I catch a glimpse of the man who mugged me.
And that, to me, is the true danger and horror and shock of Barack.
[Robin is a recovering liberal and a psychotherapist in Berkeley] http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/theshockof_barack.html
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THIS person is a psychotherapist? Yikes.
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Medicare is afflicted by massive waste and fraud, just ask the Democrats - projected elimination of the waste/fraud is supposed to pay for ObamaCare. Gee wiz, I wonder if ObamCare will be free of waste and fraud? Anybody want to bet?
I don’t think arguing for coverage with a government bureaucrat (with a “job-for-life”) will be an improvement over arguing with an insurance company.
What does the federal government do so well that you would want them to totally control the health care system?
ObamaCare will further bankrupt the USA. It will be many generations before the debt he is running up will be paid, if ever.
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Diversi-Tea Training: The AP discovers dissent isn�t racist after all.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303720604575169741651994782.html?mod=WSJnewsreelopinion
Read the whole thing.
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What continues to boil my blood, however, is how the mainstream media continues to emphasize the threat of potential violence from extremists on the right and ignore the real violence of extremists on the left. This incident highlights how the vast majority of violence has been against conservatives by liberals, not the other way around.
http://www.conservative21.net/displayone.cfm?docid=4200
Not that facts matter to the liberals and their narrative.
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It is NOT an “Anti-reform crowd”, it is an “Anti-Federal Government takeover of health care system crowd”, an “Anti-Spend more than you can afford crowd”. ObamaCare has NO reforms, just a lot of government spending, federal government mandates that the states spend more and taxes,taxes,taxes.
Health Care’s History of Fiscal Folly
Expanding health coverage busted state budgets. Will it bust the federal budget too?
The Affordable Care Act�otherwise known as ObamaCare�isn’t the first attempt to expand health insurance coverage in America. Before Washington passed its law, a number of states took smaller-scale cracks at the job�each of which proved far more expensive than planned. As the nation dives further into debt, the destabilizing fiscal effects of those programs don’t bode well for how ObamaCare will shape the U.S. budget.
As spectacular failures go, it’s hard to do worse than Tennessee. This early state attempt to dramatically increase health coverage, dubbed TennCare, started off promisingly. In 1994, the first year of its operation, the system added half a million new individuals to its rolls. Premiums were cheap�just $2.74 per month for people right above the poverty line�and liberal policy wonks loved it. The Urban Institute, for example, gave it good marks for “improving coverage of the uninsurable or high-risk individuals with very limited access to private coverage.” At its peak, the program covered 1.4 million individuals�nearly a quarter of the state’s population and more than any other state’s Medicaid program�leaving just 6 percent of the state’s population uninsured.
But those benefits came at a high price. By 2001, the system’s costs were growing faster than the state budget. The drive to increase coverage had not been matched by the drive to control costs. Vivian Riefberg, a partner at consulting firm McKinsey & Company, described it as having “almost across the board, no limits on scope and duration of coverage.” Spending on drug coverage, in particular, had gone out of control: The state topped the nation in prescription drug use, and the program put no cap on how many prescription drugs a patient could receive. The result was that, by 2004, TennCare’s drug benefits cost the state more than its entire higher education program. Meanwhile, in 1998, the program was opened to individuals at twice the poverty level, even if they had access to employer-provided insurance.
In other words, the program’s costs were uncontrolled and unsustainable. By 2004, the budget had jumped from $2.6 billion to $6.9 billion, and it accounted for a quarter of the state’s appropriations. A McKinsey report projected that the program’s costs could hit $12.8 billion by 2008, consuming 36 percent of state appropriations and 91 percent of new state tax revenues. On the question of the system’s fiscal sustainability, the report concluded that, even if a number of planned reforms were implemented, the program would simply “not be financially viable.”
http://reason.com/archives/2010/04/07/health-cares-history-of-fiscal