Ezra Klein: What Happened to the Moral Case for Health Reform?

[flpoljunkie]

What Happened to the Moral Case for Health-Care Reform?

I spent Sunday reading T.R. Reid's "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care". It's very, very good. I'll probably base a couple of posts on it. For now, however, I want to point out something he says about the successful efforts in Sweden and Taiwan to overcome the political opposition and rebuild their patchwork health care sector's into national health-care systems:

Both countries decided that society has an ethical obligation -- as a matter of justice, of fairness, of solidarity -- to assure everybody has access to medical care when it's needed. The advocates of reform in both countries clarified and emphasized that moral issue much more than the nuts and bolts of the proposed reform plans. As a result, the national debate was waged around ideals like "equal treatment for everybody," "we're all in this together," and "fundamental rights" rather than on the commercial implications for the health care industry.
Elsewhere, Reid quotes Princeton health economist Uwe Reinhardt saying that "the opponents of universal health insurance cloak their sentiments in actuarial technicalities or in the mellifluous language of the standard economic theory of markets, thereby avoiding a debate on ideology that truly might engage the American public."

This year, however, it's not just been the opponents of the policy who have relied on the "mellifluous language of the standard economic theory of markets." It's been the advocates of reform. Ask yourself what the administration's one-line goal is on health-care reform. Is it "equal treatment for everybody?" Is it "if every American is guaranteed a lawyer, why not a doctor?" Is it even "guaranteed health care for everyone?"

No. It's "bend the curve." And the problem with "bending the curve" is that it's a broadly testable proposition. This is, in part, why the Congressional Budget Office's skeptical assessments pose such a threat to health-care reform. If the White House's primary objective was health care for every American, or guaranteed care that you could keep even if you lost your job, or choice of insurance plans for every American, you could spend a bit more on health care and say you were achieving your goal. But if you say that the point of health-care reform is to save money, and then the outfit charged with estimating such things says it won't, that strikes at the heart of the project.

more...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/what_happened_to_the_moral_cas.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[bertman]

1. Excellent read. Thanks. I think this is a good idea as a rallying cry, but I imagine that

the homogeneity of Sweden's and Taiwan's populations may have made it easier to sell the "we're all in this together" theme. Here we have so many disparate groups and particularly the nasty wealthy group that doesn't want to do anything except make more money.

Sorry for the buzzkill.

[CrispyQ]

2. buzzkill

[bertman]

6. Word!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[CrispyQ]

3. What does that say about us that the ethics of health care for all isn't even a bullet point.

:banghead:

k&r

[OHdem10]

4. Our Party does not do politics well. They permitted daily 24 hr

News Cycle to be filled with the GOP defining what is in the
Bill and how it will ruin our Economy.

They have convinced the public that the Democrats:
Have developed A Canadian, European Style Plan and thejy
Ration your Health care.
Costs so much our children will lose their standard of living
paying for it.

The only people who are not covered are young people who do
not want to pay for it and Illegal Immigrants. We should
not be covering them anyway.

Worse yet, the daily description of the Infighting between
Democrats--Liberals vs Blue Dogs.

I could go on and on with the Smear Job that has done to
Health Care Reform. The GOP are passionate in their pursuit
of destroying Health Care Reform and bringing down Obama.

IMO, Our Party should have been just as passionate and
had people on TV refuting GOP at every turn.

[MarjorieG]

5. Moral case never sells. We've tried it for election reform and Democracy, but only until

costs and budget became critical were electeds beginning to even listen. Which has become too late for purchase orders, adequate procedure, etc.