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Politics : A US National Health Care System?
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To: i-node who wrote (12623)12/24/2009 11:11:49 AM
From: Lane31 Recommendation  Read Replies (2) of 42652
 
But consider how strange this concept is in the context of our current budgetary crisis.

Strange. They'd probably find our view strange, as well.

I can think of several ways to understand it.

One is that it's better that we all take a risk together than for some to be left behind. I just finished a novel about a forest fire where the firefighters were carrying an injured man when a firestorm came up. At first they tried to run for cover carrying him, then had to leave him behind. That's a tough thing to do even when you know it's necessary.

Another is the same thinking, or lack of thinking, that results in people having a dozen kids when they can barely keep a roof over their own heads. Or even one kid they can't properly provide for. I suppose it's a belief that things will work out somehow or that "God will provide" or whatever.

Yet another is guilt over what they have that other people don't. Guilt is a powerful emotion.

And then there's the premium that some place on security. We all have different hierarchies of values. Some put security at or near the top. People are entitled to their own values, whatever they are. They're not entitled to their own facts or their own logic but they are entitled to their own values.

I appreciate the focus on getting health care coverage for those who don't have it. It's the single-minded focus that gets me. The analyst and planner in me rebel at taking so much risk and giving up so much to achieve it when there are better alternative approaches. If I see one more person stand up and say "BUT at least we'll get another x million people covered" as though that were the be all and end all I will explode.

Edit: As for the timing, when times are tough, folks tend to want to help the unfortunate more. And given all the crazy spending out of the recession we are already doing, blowing the budget on this doesn't seem as strange is it might have when the deficits were smaller.
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