Health care reform: a basket full of canards

Health care reform: a basket full of canards.
I got into a discussion about health care with two of my conservative co-workers and I realized something about the health care debate. Many have said that what we see on the news isn't debate and they're right. It's a bunch of scared people who don't have there facts straight. Yet all the reports that I have seen that said the necessary health care debate isn't happening leave out what that debate actually is. Conservatives if I understand it believe in a reduction of government and leaving the individual to rise and fall on there on accord. That, I repeat, is my general understanding. Choosing this as the starting point I shall attempt to recreate the train of thought in the real debate that should be going on. One of my coworkers impassionedly stated that they were tired of seeing all of their money going to AIG, and Chevy, and other people and none of it coming back to them. They went on to rail against the MTA saying they were tired of paying high toll bridge cost so that some people can ride the buses and trains for low low prices. At this point a little background information is necessary to flesh out this mindset. This person lives on Staten Island so for the most part they need to cross the tolls in order to work and, to a large degree, play. They also have a job that provides them health insurance, not only health insurance multiple health insurance choices. Now this is absolutely my supposition but I would guess that from their perspective they have personally done all the things that a responsible individual should do to get health care and to a degree those who do not have health care are irresponsible. In addition, from their perspective since this would be a new government system it would need to be funded and that would necessarily mean more money out of their pocket. None of that money would be going to services they use because they already have the services that this system would provide. Another case of more money going to someone else. Finally my coworker has an innate distrust for government because all politicians will say anything to stay in power.
Taken individually they are all common sense arguments. Taken together it seems logical to be against health care reform. However common sense and logic is not the same thing. Therefore let's take a closer look at these common sense arguments.
My co-worker sees that the rising costs of toll bridges are a result of the toll bridges subsidizing the cost of the subway. It was my understanding that a large amount of the funds in fact went to mass transit services out of city but let's assume this is the case. Is this a bad practice? If I drive to work it literally takes me 12 minutes from drive way to parked with only 2 traffic lights. If I ride mass transit it takes 45 minutes to 1 hour a dramatic difference in travel and convenience at first glance however clearly not an unreasonable commute time Therefore it is not necessary for me to drive to work. The only reason I don't is because of the tolls. If it wasn't cost prohibitive I and others who do not need to ride the subway would flood the street with congestion. This would a) make most peoples commute longer and more frustrating and b) have a dramatic impact on the air quality of the city. So while from an individual's stand point the price of tolls seems like just a negative with no benefit for you, there are indirect benefits to the individual and tangible for the city as a whole.
Their concerns about health care are a little more complex. Again since they already have health care reform to them is fixing a problem that they don't see on there dime. So let's look and see if there are problems. From personal experience I know what it is like to be working and not be able to afford or at least believe I can't afford health insurance and therefore didn't have it. It is a life that changes your options you need to find a job, but not just any job a job that provides good health insurance. This is a motivator but it is a poor motivator. It is the equivalent of finding someone to marry for a green card; sure you get the card but is the marriage a good marriage, of any value? Can you possibly be as happy in that marriage as in a marriage that is for the right reasons (we will not go into the right reasons for marriage in this essay)? In addition the health care that you get comes with strings attached; strings you will never no exist if you've never had a real problem with your insurance. My mom had a medical issue a few years back that was cause her a tremendous amount of pain her doctor recommended a minimally invasive procedure to help but the health insurer would not approve the procedure. They felt it was "experimental" and they would only approve another procedure. The procedure they would approve was a hysterectomy. Now we can all agree there are a lot of things that can be said about hysterectomies, minimally invasive is not one of them. The worse part was other health care providers were approving the procedure. She argued the point, showed the evidence that it wasn't experimental like they claimed and still they denied her. Luckily my mom worked for the city and had a choice of health care providers and was able to change to another provider that could not deny her and would perform the procedure. These two examples while anecdotal are indicative of the problems with health care today.
This brings us to the last issue: the innate distrust of politicians. While there is a mountain of evidence that shows the corruption in politics it is disruptive to simple dismiss all politicians as corrupt. If they are corrupt it is because we accept that as fact and refuse to hold them accountable we don't demand the levers in the checks and balance system be regularly oiled and frequently exercised. If you think your politician isn't doing any good vote him or her out get involve in the process of selection so it isn't just a passing of the torch from one shady character to another. In a sense this stand point is one of a victim's standpoint. It is a resignation of responsibility to believe that all politicians are corrupt and there is nothing you can do to change that. Hold them account with your words and your votes and see if the corruption continues. This may seem like pie in the sky idealism but if people spent a tenth of the time they spend watching just there favorite TV show there would be a dramatic effect in political accountability. The system only works if we participate in it.
Ultimately this debate probably boils down to what each of us feel the role of government is in our everyday life. Those who reactively say none need to think about how much government helps them on a day to day basis. This is a much large concept so I will leave that for a future post till then stay well.