Tweet
Per President Obama:
We are the only advanced democracy on Earth – the only wealthy nation – that allows such hardships for millions of its people. There are now more than thirty million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone.
Veterans and those over 65 are the only Americans who can be sure they have health insurance.
There are those on the left who believe that the only way to fix the system is through a single-payer system like Canada’s, where we would severely restrict the private insurance market and have the government provide coverage for everyone.
Which is the way of the other advanced democracies.
On the right, there are those who argue that we should end the employer-based system and leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own.
Which is the way of the third world.
I have to say that there are arguments to be made for both approaches. But either one would represent a radical shift that would disrupt the health care most people currently have. Since health care represents one-sixth of our economy, I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn’t, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch.
According to its bipartisan centrist president, the United States is and belongs somewhere in the center between these two "radical shifts."
4 Comments
That’s right, Mr. Prez.
Build the new edifice on a rotten foundation.
Smart thinking there.
So, as I understand the speech, the reasonable center position is somewhere between Atilla the Hun and Mother Theresa; which coincidently builds on increasing insurance company profit margins, because after all, that’s what works, right?
If he truly wants to ‘build on what works,” he should consider extending to everyone:
— Medicare or
— VHA
Both paradigms are working very well here in America and throughout what he called “the advanced democracies.”
And, if he wants to fix what doesn’t, he should for-profit insurers from the primary health-insurance market just like the Europeans.
There is no paradigm for employer-based for-profit health insurance working anywhere, and it has certainly failed here in the United States.
It is another false equivalence. Obama is equating progressives with the nutcase right. It is also a classic case which shows the limits of triangulation or how triangulation can be manipulated to produce a conservative result. Progressives want a reasonable effective system that works for everyone. So we are starting here from a moderate position. Then you have the Republicans off somewhere way off on the right. Position yourself between these two, and the result is a solidly conservative, not even center-right, plan.