So now we can have health care "reform" because the insurance industry magnanimously says we can? Anyone who has ever purchased a car knows that the salesman proceeds according to the following rules.
- If I can make you pay full price, I will.
- If I can't make you pay full price, I will knock off a little on the sales price, and make you feel better by showering you with little add-ons that actually don't cost us all that much to provide.
- If the customer has the temerity to demand a meaningful reduction in sales price, I will bring in the manager, who will try to intimidate you into buying the car at our stated final price. We will sulk and pout and accuse you of stealing food from our babies, even though we know the price you are asking for is still quite reasonable.
- You only get a fair price if you are willing to make a big fuss. If you can't drive a hard bargain, we win.
After paying full price (even MORE than full price) for health care for decades, now, with much ballyhoo, we are proceeding to salesman rule #2 listed above. Does anyone believe the health care industry that torpedoed a rather corporate-friendly "reform" in the 1990s now wants to act in the public interest?
If all we get out of health care "reform" is a free undercoating and three oil changes, we're not winning. We're getting suckered.
We need to remember that Obama never embraced single-payer on the campaign trail. The right wing is all prepared to characterize even the most cushy corporate-driven "reform" as the End of Civilization As We Know It. That means we have to fight not only for the substance of real change, we also have to fight to have whatever reform does occur properly and accurately described in the media.