So you wanna kill these Conrad health care co-ops dead?
Yeah, me too. Dead like "swimming like the fishes". Dead like "I’m coming, Elizabeth." Dead like 80’s synth pop.
See, the problem is this: it sounds like a reasonable compromise. It sounds like it doesn’t expand government (which so many Senators seem to find anathema, strangely enough...considering their jobs). And it sounds like it might work. And, if done right, it just might. It works in Germany, after all. But that is a massive, government backed co-op with tremendous clout. These penny-ante mini coops are little more than chapters of your local rotary club, begging private insurers for some handouts. If health care is to live, these co-ops must die.
(more after the jump...)
But, you ask, how do we do this? Call your Senators? Sure, have fun. You’re not the constituents they care about. Well, most of you aren’t, anyway. Stage a sit in? You’ll just piss them off and get nowhere.
No, the solution is to make the option politically unpalatable. In short, it’s a branding problem. Give the co-ops a new name, one that is embarrassing on its face, and one that is politically apt.
See, this isn’t the first time the government has tried to split the difference between a real, public aid program and a private entity. Don’t believe me...read up here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC) (NYSE: FRE), known as Freddie Mac, is a government sponsored enterprise (GSE) of the United States federal government. Freddie Mac has its headquarters in the Tyson's Corner CDP in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia.[1][2]
The FHLMC was created in 1970 to expand the secondary market for mortgages in the US. Along with other GSEs, Freddie Mac buys mortgages on the secondary market, pools them, and sells them as mortgage-backed securities to investors on the open market. This secondary mortgage market increases the supply of money available for mortgages lending and increases the money available for new home purchases. The name, "Freddie Mac", was a acronym of the company's full name that had been adopted officially for ease of identification (see "GSEs" below for other examples).
and don't forget...
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Yeah, those two ended well, didn’t they?
Anyhoo, these names still resonate with the public. Sure, they did some good down through the years, but the last memory people have of these institutions is that they failed, and we had to rush in and mop up their debts faster than Pappy Bush after the collapse of a filial oil scheme.
So, a starting point. You don’t want health care co-ops? Scream it out loud, chant it at a march. Everyone will either laugh at you or wonder how wonkish you have to be to actually have to get worked up about a co-op, for God’s sake.
But
PUBLIC OPTION, YES I CARE,
NO NO NO TO FREDDIE MAC HEALTH CARE
Has at least got some zing to it. I plan to use it at my weekly anarchist world trade marches. And the cricket club.
Seriously, branding these ideas as Freddie Mac Health Care, and making it stick will go a long way to making the idea itself unusable.
Thoughts? Comments? Other slogans?
Let's debrand this motherfucker.