By C.J. JANOVY
Here’s a Republican talking point we’re hearing ad nauseam: Barack Obama’s health plan “will be a government-run program where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor” -- John McCain at his September rally with Sarah Palin in Lee’s Summit.
The scary rally cry raises the fearful specter of socialized medicine, for sure. But it doesn’t address the current reality, in which insurance-company drones and Big Pharma already stand between people and their doctors.
At least for those who are lucky enough to have insurance.
I wish Republicans would just quit the whole “socialized medicine” bullcrap anyway. Because even though they don’t speak up about it, most Americans want everyone to be insured – and would pay higher taxes to make that happen.
Last month, a Kansas group released a survey showing that 67 percent of the state’s likely voters want healthcare for everyone – and 63 percent of them would help pay for such a program if it promised high-quality care and free choice among doctors.
The report was released by the Ad Astra Institute, a self-described “not-for-profit think tank dedicated to promoting the health and prosperity of Kansas families and the communities in which they live.” Warning! They’re radicals! They know the free market doesn't always solve public problems, and they espouse a set of suspicious-sounding principals such as “Each Kansan should be treated with equal respect and concern,” and “Each Kansan should have an opportunity to have input to any decision that affects his or her life.”
National polls show people would pay higher taxes to support national healthcare, but David Burress, president of the Ad Astra Institute, says this is the first such poll in Kansas to use a scientific method.
He wasn’t surprised by the results, he says.
“Before we did the poll, we did focus groups with swing voters -- Republicans and independents, not Democrats. These were people who were undecided on health care issues, and we found a lot of willingness to have universal healthcare,” Burress says.
Besides, Burress says, anyone who buys the argument that there’s not already a bureaucrat standing between you and your doctor doesn’t understand how private insurance really works.
“To save money, they have panels of doctors, and there are only certain doctors you can go to, unless you want to pay more…. With the insurance company claim process, there’s a layer of bureaucracy to grant that claim and every incentive to deny it. They spend a lot of money denying claims – that raises the cost anywhere from 10 percent with the best companies to 40 percent for the worst ones. For all the money you give them, they spend 40 percent to keep you from getting your money back.”
To come up with the numbers in the 43-page report, the group worked with the Kansas Health Consumer Coalition to survey 504 likely voters this past May.
Who paid for all this research promoting such liberal ideas? The study was bankrolled by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, whose mission – “Healthy Kansans through strategic and cooperative philanthropy guided by Christian principles” – sounds a lot like something Sarah Palin should, theoretically, want to get behind.
Oh, CJ, if only YOUR talking points were as representative of the population as the Republicans or the Democrats we might be able to get you to see the sky as blue.
Most concerning is when you state, “even though they don’t speak up about it, most Americans want everyone to be insured – and would pay higher taxes to make that happen.”, and then using the rest of your commentary to actually prove folks DO speak up about it and WOULD pay more taxes.
Too bad the polls didn’t ask the important questions. How many people might change their mind if they see tax rates approach 50% as is seen in countries with socialized medicine? How many more would change their mind after they hear the stories about communist-bread-line-like waits to see the government doctor? How many people think that turning folks away because they would require too much treatment is good quality health care?
Certainly, the thought is noble and needs consideration whenst we get clear of some other obvious hurdles in our present path. But thinking that Obama or McCain has the answers is myopic. Hell, even Harry Caray on his drunkest day would have been able to see that making government in charge of yet another critical component of life is folly..shame you can’t.
Posted at: September 24, 2008 7:49 AM