I thought it would be a nuke. Imagine my surprise when it was nothing like Red Dawn. No Russian invasion. Just nucular stoopidity.
What snapped?
Yesterday, a La Rouche supporter had an Obama poster with a painted-on Hitler mustache. He placed it in the middle of the crosswalk outside the Farragut West Metro to block foot traffic. So I caught his eye and I said, "I want you to know that I find that poster offensive." He started to respond, so I interrupted him and said, "I don't want to talk. I just want you to know that I find that poster offensive." Then I walked off.
I felt sort of bad for the fly-by, but I was once ambushed by a La Rouche supporter. I learned a valuable lesson -- don't engage. In this case, why expect a sensible conversation from someone who likes comparing a great president to a genocidal maniac?
I wish I had let it go completely, but stoopidity has covered the land with blank stares and an angry-but-ultimately-empty arguments. It's spreading faster than swine flu. La Rouche supporters, dittoheads, Tea Baggers, Republican Congressmen. The country's anti-intellectual streak has new Kudzu-like tentacles reaching into homes and turning people into anti-intellectual Zombies.
We're finally conquering the land we had always claimed, our manifest density.
Someone I know who is usually well-informed recently said, "Insurance companies aren't evil, and the government isn't the answer to everything." If we're grading on a curve, this comment gets a B+, but that only shows how bad things have got.
Let's start with the basics.
First, it's important to understand we have to reform health care. Why? If we don't fix it, the rising cost of healthcare will soon bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid and the US government.
Second, killing off Medicare and Medicaid is not an option. Why? Because we're human, so we care for the elderly and the poor.
Third, it is possible to get better healthcare for everyone AND spend less money. You might think this is bullshit, but Canada, France, and the UK do better. Are you saying we can't beat Canada?
Fourth, health care reform is not unconstitutional. If medicare is constitutional, then so is a strong public option. Before the wingnuts try to jump in, remember the preamble to the constitution says "..to promote the general welfare." Medicare is the law of the land, and it is constitutional.
Fifth, to really fix health care, you have to think about the way health works as a gigantic system with financial feedbacks. People who don't buy healthcare put a burden on the system because they actually do use health services. Think of the uninsured college jock who rolled his car and lost his legs. There's no way he can pay and no way the hospital turns him away. The young couple who couldn't afford maternity insurance, and racked up $250,000 with a complicated pregnancy. All those expenses already get passed on to you. What reform does is recognize the reality -- everyone uses health services so everyone pays. People can't be allowed to free ride because no one truly avoids using health services, if only through the abstract concept of risk -- it's there if you need it, whether you're luck is good or bad. People should use healthcare to stay healthy -- there's a lot of money to be saved by doing this -- think about how much could be saved if you could prevent the onset of diabetes -- but while saving money helps people and reduces costs, it goes against the bottom line for doctors and companies. Insurance companies have figured out three great ways to make money: take money from healthy people, turn away poor people, and make billing a nightmare. What happens when the insurance companies don't pay their bills? Hospitals and doctors offices hire people to call insurance companies, and the insurance companies hire people to answer the calls. If you're paying in to the system, all the expenses get passed on to you. Some miserable conditions have no cure, and we don't even know what causes a few others. What the hell is irritable bowel? Who pays for schizophrenia? The truth is, medicine can only fix a few things, but people turn to medicine for comfort. If that latest cure for cancer failed, but there's another more expensive one out there, should you try it? What if it doesn't work? Should you be allowed to try it even if there's no evidence to suggest that it works? What if you'd feel better with two tylenol? These are hard decisions, and there are some rational ways of making these choices. I confess that I'm a complete sap -- give everyone the best health care we can afford. What's more important than health? Doctors make more money if they specialize (i.e. plastic surgery), but the real need is primary care. You need a relationship with someone who can spend time with you and understand your health needs. All these moving parts and others interact, and their driving the costs of healthcare ever upwards. The spiral can't be fixed by passing a set of regulations on one part of the system now. It's failing because the players are all gaming the system, but none of them have got an incentive or the power to fix it. Who does have an incentive and power to fix the menudo? Government.
Sixth, a strong public option is just another choice. If you don't want it, then don't buy it. If you think that a strong public option would drive insurance companies out of business because it could provide health care at a lower cost than the health insurance companies, then why do you want to stick with a health insurance company? Loyalty? The strong public option, on the other hand, is a critical element in any reform because it gives the government a player in the game. It's a lever that they can pull on to fix the system a little at a time. The government can adjusting their policies as health care system changes. Without the flexibility of a strong public option, the regulations have to try and fix things that we don't know about yet. Without a strong public option, we'll probably end up back here soon with broken system.
Seven, there will be losers and winners. The question is whether it's worth it to put a slightly higher tax burden on the wealthy so that everyone gets care. I've heard people get very angry about paying for someone else's health care, but remember, if you're paying in, you're already paying for someone else. If we fix the system, then can we spend less money for better health overall. That's a public good that makes all this worth it.
Eight, the standard for success is compared to the shitty system we have now -- it's not hard to beat that, and we have to.
So, if you want to argue about these basics, or if you want to go into a much more detailed technical argument, then Hoorah! It would be amazing to hear these issues discussed intelligently, instead of the crap we get.
We can go down this road with the war in Afghanistan or the financial crisis, but for heaven's sake, please try to understand the situation well-enough to discuss things. Don't join the zombies.
Ignore that fat, loudmouthed drug addict who makes money by stirring up your emotions. He's like that jackass I passed on the streetcorner. Yes, he's offensive, but he's making money to waste your time. Call him a jackass, and keep walking.
I confess that I haven't got a clue what it means to be truly evil. I don't spend a lot of my time worrying about it -- I'm much more interested in trying to be good. I know two things. Hitler and Obama are both easy calls, and if you don't know which one is evil and which one isn't, then the kudzu has you.
I've been preparing for this moment. I've seen the movies -- when the Zombies come for you, you've got to be tough. Ironically, it was a Bo Gritz for President bumper sticker that gave me the crucial information: "Guns, Gold, Gas, & Gritz." Something clicked and I started preparing for the day. Now, my bunker is filled with the absolute necessities, Brie and Chardonnay. I'm ready for whatever.