Best seen this way.
In the nearly-absent health care debate, the Republicans want us to believe that the “markets” are the holy pathway to reform. There’s a problem with that: Those markets have driven the quality, price, and availability of health care out of the reach of ordinary people like me, and you and you and you over there.
Markets are not the pathway to reform, because the health care debate is not a commercial issue. It’s a social issue. It’s an issue revolving around how to fairly ensure the public health and the health of citizens, and it’s a debate that cannot be limited to the financial.
The GOP wants you to think that the health care debate is all about money. It’s not. It’s about this country, and what we view as fundamental to our success as people, families, communities, states and a nation. An unhealthy nation cannot be a global power. Corporations cannot bear the cost of employees’ health care, and there is a fundamental unfairness to limiting health insurance access to employed individuals.
Hopefully the debate will advance in the weeks to come, and you won’t be fooled by the efforts of the insurance lobby to frame it as purely economic. It is not. The insurance companies would like to place all blame for current system flaws in the hands of the insured, without regard to the stunning wastes built into the system, the dominance (and absence of free-market pricing) of pharmaceutical companies, and the utter lack of social conscience.
Want an example of why it’s so important to be engaged in this debate? Look no further than the swine flu, which poses a threat to not only you, but that guy you talked to in the market, and that guy that he met up with who flew back to Canada, and that guy over there who has a newborn baby at risk.
Because we are interconnected: A farmer coughs while tending livestock in Mexico. At lunch he shakes hands with his cousin the policeman, who writes a ticket for a visiting tourist later that day. The tourist goes home to Belgium, where his colleague leaves the next day to visit his cousin the day-care worker in New York. A week later a 16-month-old child dies in Queens.
See how that works? And that’s just one example. So let’s get serious about this debate. Three core principles:
- Reduce costs.
- Guarantee choice
- Ensure quality care
Flower markets are fine. Insurance markets must change. Be part of the change.
