I am fascinated by the town hall meetings that are happening around the country and the ire, real or imagined, that is being heaped on members of Congress who are simply attempting to share information with their constituencies about ways our government h
I am fascinated by the town hall meetings that are happening around the country and the ire, real or imagined, that is being heaped on members of Congress who are simply attempting to share information with their constituencies about ways our government hopes to help 50 million uninsured Americans get health insurance.
There are some Americans who honestly oppose a government role in providing health care, some who dishonestly (like Sarah Palin) have twisted provisions to end up with “death panels” that do not exist but frighten many people, and some who have no problem with health care, per se, but have jumped in on this one as a way of pouncing on a weakness they perceive in the Obama Administration.
They don’t dislike health care, they dislike President Barack Obama. They see blood in the water and so, like the sharks they are, they are going after it. Here’s the evidence – the discussion is shrill and uncivil. It is long on emotion and short on facts.
I hesitate to say that there is a racial element in this opposition because those who oppose national health insurance were pretty nasty when the Clintons were attempting to implement those policies (remember Harry and Louise?). Still, I never thought a debate about health insurance could turn so vituperative, and in sleepy August, too.
While politics is the art of compromise, President Obama and his team should hold the line on health insurance. It is an essential part of economic recovery and economic vitality. How many people file bankruptcy because, uninsured, they have encountered health care bills for an unplanned illness?
How many allow small illnesses to become large ones because they can’t get to a doctor? We know there are 50 million uninsured adults and children. What kind of productivity drain exists because people don’t have the health insurance they need?
After being battered by the astroturf organizations playing at real opposition, President Obama seems ready to step back and perhaps abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance. This represents capitulation on a key point, preserves the so-called free market forces that Republicans want and postpones the reckoning that must take place about health care until a future time when another leader (or perhaps this one in a second term) is able to deal with comprehensive reform.
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