I don't think you really are "opposition" here. I imagine you agree with the fundamental facts: health care is a right, not a privilege. People should have access to health care, like they should have access to food and shelter.
The majority of "the other side" doesn't think health care isn't a right - it just doesn't think government would do better controlling it than private companies do. Trying to make the argument into, "This is so obvious that the other side is stupid and evil" is counter-productive. Most people who argue against national health care don't think we should let people die in a ditch (okay, some do, but not most). They think our particular government system is not competent to meet our national need.
Because we aren't France. There are many things we do differently than France. We're also a lot bigger. Could we learn a lot from them? Yes. My mother still rants about the time my father fainted in a French restaurant and got emergency care, and how the secretary in the emergency room looked insulted when my mother tried to offer her credit card. But that doesn't mean doing the exact same thing would end up accomplishing the exact same thing, because we're different people with a different culture. Also, we have a different entrenched system-- and I don't just mean health care, but the entire rest of our budget, and how our medical and legal systems work, which would all need to change to make us "like France."
In short? It isn't an easy answer. People rejecting this attempt aren't evil people who think the poor should DIE; they're people who think this particular bill won't work in the long run. A lot of them say, if you actually listen, that they would be for a better plan - but so far, no one's come up with a plan they think will work.
I live in Massachusetts. We did some healthcare reform recently that was supposed to improve the situation, and let me say I think it just made it worse. Step in the right direction? Maybe, but in the meantime it screwed a lot of people, and now I have friends who aren't just uninsured, but the state of Massachusetts is charging them for being uninsured. So guess what? I'm opposed to the current MA health reform. I guess that means I'm the idiot who is uncivilized and too stupid to realize France can do it, so why can't Massachusetts?
Stop demonizing the other side and assuming they're too stupid to live, and maybe we can learn from each other.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2009-09-16 04:01 am (UTC)I don't think you really are "opposition" here. I imagine you agree with the fundamental facts: health care is a right, not a privilege. People should have access to health care, like they should have access to food and shelter.
The majority of "the other side" doesn't think health care isn't a right - it just doesn't think government would do better controlling it than private companies do. Trying to make the argument into, "This is so obvious that the other side is stupid and evil" is counter-productive. Most people who argue against national health care don't think we should let people die in a ditch (okay, some do, but not most). They think our particular government system is not competent to meet our national need.
Because we aren't France. There are many things we do differently than France. We're also a lot bigger. Could we learn a lot from them? Yes. My mother still rants about the time my father fainted in a French restaurant and got emergency care, and how the secretary in the emergency room looked insulted when my mother tried to offer her credit card. But that doesn't mean doing the exact same thing would end up accomplishing the exact same thing, because we're different people with a different culture. Also, we have a different entrenched system-- and I don't just mean health care, but the entire rest of our budget, and how our medical and legal systems work, which would all need to change to make us "like France."
In short? It isn't an easy answer. People rejecting this attempt aren't evil people who think the poor should DIE; they're people who think this particular bill won't work in the long run. A lot of them say, if you actually listen, that they would be for a better plan - but so far, no one's come up with a plan they think will work.
I live in Massachusetts. We did some healthcare reform recently that was supposed to improve the situation, and let me say I think it just made it worse. Step in the right direction? Maybe, but in the meantime it screwed a lot of people, and now I have friends who aren't just uninsured, but the state of Massachusetts is charging them for being uninsured. So guess what? I'm opposed to the current MA health reform. I guess that means I'm the idiot who is uncivilized and too stupid to realize France can do it, so why can't Massachusetts?
Stop demonizing the other side and assuming they're too stupid to live, and maybe we can learn from each other.