My regular readers may find the title of this post startling. Bear with me for a few minutes. I've decided to speak directly to the most vociferous critics of the plan to reform our healthcare system, the ones who shout down conversation at protest rallies.
I understand that you claim to oppose the current healthcare plan because you fear the effect of socializing medicine.
If you want to convince others of the unassailable rightness of your point of view, I have a strategy you might want to use. It is stunning in its simplicity and will address so many of the flaws you find in the proposed healthcare plan.
Opt out of Medicare.
That's right. Opt out of Medicare and take out your own privately funded health insurance policy. Pay for the premiums from your own resources.
If you are too young to qualify for Medicare, persuade your parents or grandparents to opt out of the system. Offer to help pay their premiums as a demonstration of your family values.
Just think how much propaganda value this protest would have, especially if it became a mass movement. During the upcoming debate over the bill, conservative senators could stand up on the Senate floor and thunder, "My constituents are so opposed to socialized medicine that 30 percent of eligible recipients have chosen to opt out of Medicare."
Not only would you be striking a blow against socialism, you would also be accomplishing two other things you hold dear. You would be helping the insurance companies compete by giving them more business, and you would be helping to reduce government spending.
I know that, liberal as I am, I would be impressed by such a principled stand. And it would be a lot more relevant to the issue than mailing teabags to Washington or waving them at public protests.
Nothing less than such a radical consistency between ideology and action will convince me that you have been honest about your reasons for opposing the public option. If you fail to act in a way that is true to your stated principles, then I will continue to suspect what I have suspected all along . . . that you are simply infected with an "I've got mine, screw everyone else" hypocrisy. Alas, it's an epidemic far deadlier than H1N1, and it threatens to kill all of us.
* Hat tip to Jonathan Swift
13 comments:
:-)
I not only agree, but wish to add one more caveat--those who receive their health care via the military, be it TRICARE or VA services, also eschew those government funded systems and purchase their own. I've noted that many who are eligible for TRICARE or VA are greatly opposed to health care reform.
That's good Ruth. I happen to know some pretty vocal opponents of the health care bill, ones who also benefit greatly from Medicare.
You are the Jonathan Swift of the Hoosier State. Well said!
Yup.
I would add that our Representatives should give up the lovely plan they enjoy at our expense as well. But I must say that many of those who oppose this have valid concerns, and aren't just all about symbols.
Wow Ruth, send this to a newspaper - get some discussion going!!
Exactly!
I'm with Rosezilla on this, there are many with valid concerns about this. I also would suggest that this same standard be applied to any protesting group, on any side of a debate - stop yakking about it and take some personal action. Because what's the difference between a tea party and writing a representative? Both are means of expressing concern over an issue. Both are valid methods.
There is a very important difference between tea parties and writing Congress. The people who are holding tea parties have taken an important story from U.S. history and twisted its meaning. The original Boston tea party was a protest against taxation without representation. It wasn't a complaint that "My taxes are too high" or that "Government is too big." It was a complaint that the colonists were shut out of the process, that they were being required to pay the costs of being British citizens but could not participate in the decision making. The very fact that you can talk about writing your representative proves that we do not have that problem.
As an educator of U.S. history, I find it very hard to forgive the deliberate distortion of that story . . . especially from a group that prides itself on its patriotism.
Well, there are other analogies. It wasn't a one-time problem. Many Christians are beginning to feel like they are taxed, but not represented. And homeschooling parents feel that way, too, when we have to pay exorbitant taxes to a public school system we can not in good conscience send our children to. We still have to pay to educate our children, on top of paying for a system that is hostile to them. Also, in some ways, it could be argued that the original protest did have something to do with government being too demanding and intrusive, i.e. "too big" although they were referring to the British government that was sovereign over them at the time; one of the major tenets of the new government we formed was that it would not be too intrusive in our lives. Well, it is now. (I can't deny that I can't for the life of me figure out what the tea party, original or new, has to do with the health care reform debate. I'm missing something for sure. But then I haven't been to any of the protests, so I haven't heard the speeches which no doubt spell out the connection).
Perhaps it's not a distortion of the story, but an attempt to honor the courage the colonists had to stand up for what they believed in?
On a personal level, we don't see eye to eye on politics and probably never will, but that doesn't stop me from thinking you rock. :)
XOXO
You are right, that's the solution. You don't believe in government-run health care? Fine! Don't take Medicare then. It makes perfect sense to me!
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