a. approximately 46 million Americans are without health insurance.
b. we all pay for the care these folks receive - both in terms of financial costs and the costs to our collective morality we incur by valuing individuals' lives and health based on income.
c. everyone deserves healthcare and we are the ONLY developed/industrialized (insert any other Western, imperial, colonial moniker that privileges wealth over poverty in a ubiquitous way) nation that does not simply provide healthcare to all.
What I'm confused about is the Republicans' opposition to a public option. The key word here is option. While I'm all for a single-payer system that covers everyone and removes the for-profit insurance companies from the equation, I also know that stating such makes me a pinko Commie bastard. This idea of simply providing for all is soooo European and Socialist; it just won't happen any time soon in a country that bows at the altar of business, wealth, and profits. But what confuses me is the right's seemingly contradictory views on the matter.
If, as the right believes, private businesses will always come up with a better, more efficient model that the government, what's the harm in a public option? If the private options will always be better, why not let the federal government offer a plan? The diparity in the quality and costs of the two would only serve to prove the right's point that the private sector always knows best. This is, after all, the line of argument the right uses in advancing their case against public schooling.
In railing against public schools the right uses an argument that goes something like this: The government has a monopoly on the provision of education. This lack of competition fosters an environment of complacency, mediocrity, and even poor quality. If we just opened up schools to competition like we do with other consumer products we would instantly see an increase in the quality of education American kids receive. In the right's mind this is all based on the facts that:
a. Education is just a commodity like socks and video games.
b. Those who go into education do not inherently care about their students and the quality of education they receive. They need incentives, and in our culture competition is the king of incentives.
So if this is the rationale for promoting an agenda that seeks to dismantle the monopoly on education, why do these things not apply to healthcare, which is unfortunately also seen merely as a commodity?
It seems that once again the right seeks to have it both ways. Is sex the only area where the right sees both ways as a bad thing? They want to extol the virtues of the private sector, but they don't want to engage in a competition that would render a verdict based on real people making real choices - the extent to which any of us make choices, but that's a whole other story.
Come to think of it, this situation is an example not of the right wanting to have it both ways, but instead wanting something even more - something like a three-way. Given the recent and seemingly never-ending examples of Republicans having a conservative mind and a liberal penis (thanks Jon Stewart), I guess this actually makes perfect sense. Never mind, I'm straight. I mean clear.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Governor Mark Sanford's Affair | ||||
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everyone i know who moved to the US from another "rich" country (though clearly, no one is as rich as us!)is shocked by how much better the educational standards are in their home countries, like ireland. They feel like with all that we have here it's amazing that the public schools are not better. And there's no competition in these other countries...apparently, just a culture that places importance on solid education and spends money on it (maybe more efficiently and effectively than we do?). so it seems that there is actual proof that the competition model isn't necessary! maybe the countries with socialized medicine just don't value endless procedures and short wait times and whatnot...maybe their heathcare systems have not gotten up there with their educational standards yet. but meanwhile, here we are, overspending and underserving all over the place, with proposals from the right to "fix"the problem based on ideology and not evidence. I am not an expert but it just seems...argh.
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