Health Care Reform

I always enjoy Jon Stewart's take-downs of Fox News, as in last night's episode. Well, this is one television show I never miss, though I don't get Comedy Central, so I watch it online.

But what struck me was when Faux - er, I mean Fox - News interviewed four elderly men and women who, predictably, repeated Fox talking points while expressing their opposition to health care reform. Yes, they were clearly gullible and no doubt easily confused. Even better for the right-wing, many of the elderly are easy to scare, perhaps already having trouble accepting the immense changes in society during their lifetimes.

But seniors like these love their own government-run, socialized health care system. They just don't want anyone else to have the same benefits they already enjoy. Doesn't that seem remarkably selfish?

Even Republicans have (almost) stopped their attacks on Medicare and Social Security, since they're so popular. In fact, they've actually been trying to convince seniors that they're "saving Medicare" from the Democrats! That would be hilarious, if so many ignorant and gullible people didn't seem to be buying it. Well, I guess it's easy to scare timid, fearful little people, isn't it? And they do have a dedicated propaganda arm in Fox News.

But personally, I would love to drop my health insurance and go with Medicare, instead. And I'm young enough and healthy enough that I'd certainly drop the overall per-capita costs of the program, too. Of course, this would deprive the insurance companies of my premiums, and they have a great deal of political power (even more now that the GOP-packed Supreme Court has overturned precedent and released the floodgates of corporate cash).

My health insurance premiums increased 25% this year, on top of a 12% increase last year and 15% the year before that - a 61% increase in just three years. Health insurance is easily my biggest annual expense - ahead of food, ahead of housing, certainly ahead of clothing (of course, my wardrobe consists almost entirely of worn bluejeans and a variety of Blood Bank t-shirts). And that's with a $2,000 deductible, which means that I won't go to the doctor unless I'm half dead.

I would switch insurance, but, of course, a new policy won't cover pre-existing conditions (and life is apparently a "pre-existing condition" to insurance companies). And if you're not in some kind of group policy, they can dump you at any time - or increase the rates 100%, instead of just 61%. Insurance companies make money by insuring only those people who won't - or can't - actually use the policy. That's why they don't complain much about Medicare, since the elderly need far too much expensive care to be especially lucrative.

Now, I have nothing against private insurance companies, though they need to be watched (but then, so does the government). I just want them to have some competition. We hear it repeated ad nauseum that the government is horribly inefficient, incapable of managing anything except wars, so why does government competition scare them so much? If these private companies really are so efficiently run, they should have no problem competing against inept government bureaucrats, right?

And these elderly (not all of them, but the majority) who gullibly accept every Fox News talking point, and who are the biggest supporters of the GOP,... why not let other people have the same benefits that you enjoy so much? It's not "socialism" when it benefits you, is that it? (Sort of like how corporate welfare is so popular with the rich, but they insist on strict capitalism - with no bailouts! - for the poor?) Were you always this selfish, or did that sneak up on you over the years?

Before those superb initiatives of Social Security and Medicare - brought to us by progressives in the Democratic Party, over the intense opposition of the GOP - the elderly were the poorest demographic in America. Now they're the richest. (It's odd that the elderly don't seem to appreciate this, isn't it?) None of us want to go back to those days (although Republicans are still trying to get their hands on that money, still trying to privatize those programs, so wealthy corporations can dip into that income stream and become even wealthier). But why be so selfish in trying to keep the benefits of government-run health insurance - as just one option -  to yourself?