Update (this got long, so i created a new post):
Having read Mr. Kleins's comments and getting back to the homestead, I'm going to post my you tube video and then respond a bit to said commentry
First, a funny video about the concept of personal healthcare plans that aren't dependent on your employer:
This is a great video, and not just because it visalizes some great work fantasies (i particularly like the guy sitting on the copier) but because the text is right on as far as selling the idea of healthcare being portable. After a quick review of the bills in the house and senate right now, it seems that this provision is receiveing a bit of a head nod in the House "No reason to ever make a job or life decision again based on health care coverage" and looked over in the senate. I hope that Wyden (who sits on the finance committee) will insist that this kind of coverage be included and empahsized.
I say emphasized because these kinds of programs could be used to really sell this rform to the general public. One could make a pretty good argument that Obama already did that during the election but, as Mr. Klein says, Obama seems to have punted again, only to hope for a quick fumble recovery before time is up... (if were looking for an american footbal analogy, perhaps it would be better to call this an onside kick). His speech last night (which i havent yet listened to but have read a bit of) seemed to me to be a start. What really needs to happen is that people get energized about getting something done. I don't mean apealing to joe six pack, but i mean making it clear to the american people that massive reform will do EVERYONE a lot of good, the seniors and the insured as well. Charts like this might help.
Whats happening instead is that the american people are distracted by a lot of other things, they dont really like congress that much, and the republicans are doing their best to verbally lash Obama when they can. The fact that the mainstream media is going along for the show is unsurprising. Although Obama is starting to try and get things moving on the social movement front (which would hopefully put more pressure on the senators and congressmen that are dragging their nuckles), his administration and political arms have been pretty rough recently, even running ads against moderate democrats recently. I think it might be too late for the President to really be able to move this, and the most effective thing he could to is to tell Ried and Pelosi to just stand up, take responsibility for this thing publicly, and ram it through. As far as selling the people, the White House (and Congressional democrats!) should be touting the benefits of this program for everyone.
That's a good point about Obama's lack of follow-through on the social movement front. There's always a lot of effort in every campaign to present each candidate as more motivational than thou, but Obama really laid it on thick and has done little with it since. Seeing a huge mass of support behind Obama might get congressional dems to chill out somewhat (your point I think).
ReplyDeleteYour point about portability kind of clarified something for me. Most countries with universal healthcare and some kind of user-pay insurance scheme (Canada, Germany) seem to consider healthcare a basic public service, and the insurance companies are just a way to organize the financing. Nobody even thinks of it as *real* insurance - it's almost like an aggregated escrow account.
The Americans do seem to think of healthcare strictly as an employment benefit, like a salary or a company car, that couldn't even be attached to the beneficiary in principle. Instead of framing a healthcare *policy* as beneficial to the public, it might be a better strategy to frame healthcare as a basic entitlement in a healthy society (literally), and then the policy just becomes the means of making good on that.