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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (116153)	7/22/2009 9:51:54 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542008

David Leonhardt, of the NYTimes has one of the best overvue essays on the healthcare debate right now. The Times put it on today's front page. ----------------- July 22, 2009 Economic Scene Challenge to Health Bill: Selling Reform By DAVID LEONHARDT WASHINGTON — What’s in it for me? On the subject of health care reform, most Americans probably don’t have a good answer to the question. And that, obviously, is a problem for the White House and for Democratic leaders in Congress. Current bills would expand the number of insured — but 90 percent of voters already have insurance. Congressional leaders say the bills would cut costs. But experts are dubious. Instead, they point out that covering the uninsured would cost billions. So the typical person watching from afar is left to wonder: What will this project mean for me, besides possibly higher taxes? Barack Obama was able to rise from the Illinois State Senate to the presidency in large measure because of his ability to explain complex issues and then to make a persuasive argument. He now has a challenge worthy of his skills. Our health care system is engineered, deliberately or not, to resist change. The people who pay for it — you and I — often don’t realize that they’re paying for it. Money comes out of our paychecks, in withheld taxes and insurance premiums, before we ever see it. It then flows to doctors, hospitals and drug makers without our realizing that it was our money to begin with. The doctors, hospitals and drug makers use the money to treat us, and we of course do see those treatments. If anything, we want more of them. They are supposed to make us healthy, and they appear to be free. What’s not to like? The immediate task facing Mr. Obama — in his news conference on Wednesday night and beyond — is to explain that the health care system doesn’t really work the way it seems to. He won’t be able to put it in such blunt terms. But he will need to explain how a typical household, one that has insurance and thinks it always will, is being harmed. More at: nytimes.com

To: JohnM who wrote (116153)	7/22/2009 9:57:16 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542008

yup Everyone wants a magic bullet, just like everyone wants a magic pill to make them well. Very few people want to do the day in day out work of eating well (and not too much) and exercising, and avoiding dangerous substances, and very few people want to put in the hours it takes to have an excellent school- from the parents, who need to back up their kids at home, and participate in school in an intelligent way, to teachers who see the job as some easy sinecure, to administrators who aren't capable or committed. There are truly great public schools out there- but for the most part they are in areas of affluence, and it's parents who generally demand the excellence. Some people seem to believe the public schools have no "customer", but they do, The area in which a school is located is its customer base, and with a motivated populace schools will change. Most areas get the schools they deserve- it's just that to break the cycle of ignorance you need to give some areas better schools than the people in the area demand - which is structurally a very difficult thing to do. But I'm sure you know all that already.