The health care debate in this country has been raging this summer.  President Obama campaigned on a public option to compete with health insurance giants that have grown into faceless corporations that routinely deny coverage to save their bottom line.  The World Health Organization ranks the United States’ health care system as 37th in the world, behind Costa Rica and just ahead of Slovenia (See the rankings here for yourself  http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html).  We have the second worst infant mortality rate in the modern world, indeed only Latvia has a worse infant death rate among developed nations. (http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/)

One side note, I find it interesting that all the anti-abortion activists on the right never mention this, or any cause or solution for that matter.

The bottom line in this national debate is should health care be a privilege or a right in this country.  I believe, for many reasons, that health care in the 21st century should be a right in this country, as it is with every other developed nation on the planet.  Not only is it the moral thing to do, but it also makes financial sense as well.  A society that is healthier is also remarkably more productive at work, a small business that doesn’t have to carry the health care costs is not as burdened by a national plan, the individual that has to shell out $2000 deductibles is not as financially strapped.  In addition, half of all bankruptcies in the US are caused by exorbitant health care costs.  How could this possibly be productive for our society?  Answer: It’s not, it’s draining our economy and it has been growing worse exponentially every year.  That’s why the state of the economic recovery can not be separated from the health care debate, the financial security of Americans is also tied to what kinds of costs they are paying for health care.

This has led us back to the same argument that has been taking place in this country since it’s inception and that is the role of government in society.  The dividing line has become more stark in recent years with the Republican Party moving further away from any kind of moderate consensus of what the role of government should be.  As the GOP has steadily been taken over by the southern ultra-conservative faction, the moderate north-eastern New England Republican has become an endangered species.  Indeed, there remain no Republican members of the House in the region and only 3 Senators, with one retiring next year; the other two, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine are practically considered outcasts in the Republican caucus.  Meanwhile the GOP has been taken over by the southern faction which has reflected in the leadership of the party over the last 15 years or so.  Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, Tom DeLay, Trent Lott, Bill Frist, Mitch McConnell and of course George W. Bush all hail from the former Confederacy and have been the main architects of the modern day GOP.

Why even bring up the Republicans when the Democrats hold such great majorities you ask?  Because it is essential that we reach an American consensus about the role of government in society.  Typically, throughout our history a general consensus forms around historic elections such as 2008, 1980 (Reagan), 1932 (FDR), etc.  This has become more and more difficult when the aforementioned GOP leaders now have their own TV network to say whatever they wish.  I speak of course of Fox News.  In years past, especially before the election of Bush in 2000, Fox News put on a fairly convincing façade that they were “fair and balanced”.  Today however is another story entirely, now they make no bones about who and what they support, it is not a journalistic outlet, simply wall-to-wall anti-Obama coverage.

Fox News has come to represent an alternate reality for an entire cross section of the American pubic.  It is in this reality that right wing lies have been allowed to spread like wildfire throughout the public consciousness, such as the now infamous and erroneous claim of “death panels” to determine who could receive health care.  In the Fox News reality, it was time to release the hounds and get the pitchforks (or in this case loads of guns and ammo as a few loonies have done when going to President Obama’s town halls), no journalistic digging for the truth of what was in the bill, but rather the addresses of where Democratic Congressmen were holding town hall meetings.  It is both the media and politicians job to educate the public, so when both work in tandem as is the case with the GOP and Fox News, serious mis-information and outright lies can be spread around. In fact a new poll released says that nearly half of Americans believe the Obama “death panel” lie (http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/poll-nearly-half-of-americans-believe-death-panel-falsehood/).

A democracy depends upon a well informed public and that is certainly not happening.

Conservative arguments against a national healthcare system do not seem to contain much logic.  One is that national healthcare is socialism.  Well, YES IT IS!  My answer to that is what do you think public education or financial aid is?  What do you think SOCIAL Security or Medicare is?  What do you think unemployment insurance is?  Time to grow up people, the Cold War is over, we don’t have to discount every leftist idea as inherently evil, we can be pragmatic Americans, unafraid to try things that have worked in the rest of the developed world.

Another argument is that it will cost too much.  The United States already spends more per capita than any other nation on health care, we’re already paying for single-payer health care and not getting it.  Billions could be saved by using electronic medical records, preventative check ups, and reforming patent laws on new medicine.  One thing is certain the status quo is unsustainable.  If things are left as they currently stand, insurance companies can continue to decrease coverage and increase premiums as they wish as well as deny coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions.  (“Sorry Jimmy you already had leukemia before you had this health insurance plan, no bone marrow transplant for you.”)  These same conservatives seemed to have no problem while George W. Bush took us to a $1 trillion dollar deficit, indeed in the Fox News world it’s as if this never took place.

The public option represents real health care reform that was a major part of the Democratic platform as the public overwhelmingly swept Democrats into power last year.  It seems to me the Democrats are afraid of the threat of Republican filibusters, just the threat.  I say let them filibuster if they want, let them stand in front of the American people and tell us why we should not have national healthcare and keep the status quo; then please release all your campaign contributions that you’ve received from big pharma and insurance companies!

Mike Hernandez

August 20, 2009