The Health Care Debate: Conservatives vs. Liberals
by The health care debate is rife with disinformation, lunatic fringe idiocy and utter lies wrapped up in a nice little box filled with oodles of cash for the insurance companies. What’s worse is that the debate itself has further polarized and marginalized the moderate majority of U.S. citizens. Where will you stand?
The Conservative Viewpoint
On the conservative side of the fence the issue is individual freedom of choice from the iron fist of a repressive Federal government. At first, it seems simple. They don’t want to pay a fine in the form of a tax if they choose to forgo health care coverage. They want their money to stay in their pockets and they want the Federal government to stay out of making personal decisions for them.
What they want seems to me to be quite reasonable. I too want the Federal government to leave me alone. In fact, I want all government to leave me alone. And I believe the vast majority of Americans want the exact same thing. We want to be left alone to live our lives as we see fit without some giant entity telling us how to live our lives. So, this viewpoint appeals to people. It appeals to people on an emotional, visceral level. We’re independent, proud and free. And we want to stay that way.
The Liberal Viewpoint
From a liberal perspective, the issue seems to be about helping people that can’t afford coverage. It also seems to represent an effort to lower costs in the system as a whole by forcing those (with the tax “fine”) who choose not to get coverage to get coverage or pay for themselves through a tax. So, ultimately, for the liberals it’s about money as well. They are tired of people failing to take personal responsibility for themselves and granting massive tax write-offs to private hospitals. They are tired of being told that this guy or this gal can’t afford insurance and then having to wait in line at an emergency room while they’re having a heart attack because it’s the only place the working poor can get medical treatment. They’re tired of letting insurance companies make huge sums of money off of people for their entire lives and then dropping them when they get sick.
What the liberals want seems to me to be quite reasonable as well. I too am tired of paying my hard earned tax dollars to uninsured 23 year olds who are too irresponsible to get health care. I too am tired of hearing about people who die in an emergency room of a heart attack because the wait time is too long. I am very, very tired of seeing single moms with two kids work three jobs to pay for basic health care for their children. We see these things and it pulls at us in an emotional, visceral way. Nobody wants children to go without health care. Nobody thinks that people should be turned away if they need medical attention. So, why all of the animosity and name calling over health care?
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Post CommentTugboater
On January 4, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Nice attempt at finding a middle ground although the path you took is flawed. Freedom of choice is only one problem with Obama-Care. This bill does not go after the major problem with the medical system which is cost containment. Tell me one thing the government has been involved in and been able to contain costs. The major resistance I have with the “Health Care Bill” is the government taking control of the best medical system in the world. The government should not control private business. They should focus on changing laws to allow national insurance policies instead of state run insurance policies; we would see more competition and cost reductions.
Currently, with the liberal majority in government there may as well be one party (communism). As seen through out the process, Democrats have on multiple occasions, conducted private 9Locked door) meetings. No Republicans were allowed access. Obama is doing a great job at bringing the parties together to find middle ground as he promised in his campaign
Oh and by the way, we already have laws on the books to insure little Johnny will get proper medical attention after his car accident.