You know the old chesnut that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged? Well, a liberal may be a conservative who lost health care.
My sister-in-law works for a large, multi-national conglomerate in the northeast. She is 42, pregnant with her first child, and had a stroke (the Sen. Johnson kind) two years ago. My brother works for a high-tech start up, and had his pay cut the day they found out she was expecting. But that was okay, since her job was great, she loved the company, and (because it was European-based) she had excellent health insurance and family leave.
Then, last week, she was told that her position was being "eliminated." That is, she wasn't getting fired or laid off, but they were erasing the job from the company. She had told them she was pregnant several weeks before this news; a number of her colleagues have said to her that the company couldn't fire a pregnant woman, but they could elimate the job. Twenty other people were elimated company-wide, which sounds like a lot until you find out the company has thousands of employees. She suspects (but cannot prove) that they got rid of her because she was at high risk to cost a lot of money on their insurance.
While this is indeed horrible, the part that is interesting to our discussion is the reaction of my parents and my brother-in-law. These are people who are northeastern Republicans, a dying breed that is socially liberal, but very fiscally conservative. They railed about the Clintons wanting to socialize medicine, although my mother, as a retired educator, has health care for life from the state. When Obama (whom they did not vote for) was elected, they were beside themselves with panic that he would have us "rationing" health care, Soviet-style. Now, suddenly, they are with the program; if only there were some "public insurance" for people like my brother and his wife, who will use his company insurance at exhorbitant premiums (heck, her COBRA would be cheaper).
I read the polls and see that most Americans want this option, but the (insured) conservatives and moderates in D.C. don't get it, because it doesn't affect them. Maybe if more conservatives or their families had to stare high medical costs in the face, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
UPDATE: Gosh! I wrote this, went to a baseball game, and came home late to find my very first rec list! I also came home to a message from my mom. My parents are planning to take my sister-in-law to talk to a labor lawyer they know, since they are so outraged. I haven't called back yet, because it will take every ounce of my being to not be snarky (my dad's business was sued once, and he hates lawsuits--all made more ironic by having a lawyer for a daughter). I will keep you posted on whether they decide to use the legal system to upend the free market.