{"id":282,"date":"2017-06-27T14:55:50","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T14:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=282"},"modified":"2017-10-28T17:01:07","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T17:01:07","slug":"view-from-the-other-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2017\/06\/27\/view-from-the-other-side\/","title":{"rendered":"View from the Other Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

View from the Other Side<\/p>\n

Senator Bernie Sanders says that if the GOP Health Care Plan passes, \u201c\u2026thousands will die.\u201d [1]<\/a> Congressman Mo Brooks says that \u201c\u2026people who lead good lives\u2026\u201d don\u2019t have to worry about pre-existing conditions.[2]<\/a> The Congressional Budget Office says that that 15 million people will lose their insurance if the plan becomes law.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of these statements are true, some are hyperbolic, but they are all part of the incredibly heated rhetoric that surrounds the Senate vote on the GOP Health Care Plan. As a \u201cliberal\u201d I find it hard to imagine that any Senator would vote for this Plan with the clear impact it will have on their constituents’ lives. And it\u2019s easy to fall into the trap of saying all of the Republicans are \u201cbought out\u201d by the insurance companies, or the billionaires who look to make vast amounts of money on tax breaks, or really believe that the \u201cvirtuous\u201d won\u2019t need insurance.<\/p>\n

Part of believing in \u201ccivil discourse\u201d means that I believe that folks of good faith can have differing views, reasonably held. So in the interest of being civil, here is what I believe are their reasons to change health care (though I find none of these reasons persuasive!!) <\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Conservatives believe that the free market will do a better job of providing insurance rather than one controlled by government regulation. Competition will ultimately drive the cost of insurance down, making it more affordable. Then it will then become more attractive to younger, healthier people who are not now inclined to buy expensive insurance, expanding the market and therefore create a broader base paying insurance and lowering costs.<\/li>\n
  2. They also believe that medical care is a simple \u2018supply and demand\u2019 equation. By putting government money into the market (by the increase in Medicaid payments) it creates more demand for care, and, as the supply of care cannot easily expand, the cost of medical care goes up for all.<\/li>\n
  3. They also don\u2019t believe that \u201cpeople will die\u201d if the GOP Health Care Plan becomes law. There are already laws in the books that require public hospitals to treat everyone who comes in the door, and while that treatment is folded into the overall cost of health care, it doesn\u2019t come out of the government pocket.<\/li>\n
  4. Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, as Vice President Pence has made clear.[4]<\/a> Personal responsibility means that folks have to deal with their own issues, whether it\u2019s pregnancy (men shouldn\u2019t pay for pre-natal care) or diabetes. Others shouldn\u2019t have to pay more on their insurance to cover it.<\/li>\n
  5. Conservatives don\u2019t believe that Government money should be paid through Medicare to solve \u201csocial\u201d problems: most notably drug addiction. Either drug addiction should be treated through \u201cstand alone\u201d programs, or, \u00a0echoing the personal responsibility idea, addicts did it to themselves.<\/li>\n
  6. And perhaps most importantly, conservatives believe that the current government cost of health care is unsustainable, that it will increase the National Debt to the point where the value of the US Dollar will begin to fall from inflation, and ultimately will require future generations to pay a huge cost.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The ARE multiple problems with the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). It was based and passed on the concept that ALL states would expand Medicaid, and therefore expand the number of healthy individuals in the insurance pool. The Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out of the expansion, and \u00a0therefore reduced the size of the pool.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

    The IRS has stopped collecting the \u201cpenalty\u201d for not having insurance. This removes the incentive for healthy individuals to enter the insurance pool, and it reduces the amount of tax brought in to back the rest of the ACA. Meanwhile, insurance companies are getting out of the individual state marketplaces, often because they have no faith that the laws of today will be the laws of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

    The ACA was an attempt to bridge the divide between the free market view of health care and the more liberal \u201csingle payer\u201d system, which is most easily thought of as Medicare for everyone. But even for a single payer system to work, the US must also step onto the other side of the equation in health care, price control. Medicare already does this by restricting the amount that can be charged for a given procedure, but drug costs have been specifically EXEMPTED <\/em>from control. While the argument is made the Pharmaceutical companies won\u2019t do research if they don\u2019t make a big enough profit (the famous \u201cfirst pill\u201d cost,) it\u2019s hard to imagine that the excessive profits big pharma makes now are just used for research.<\/p>\n

    In the end, health care support from the government is a choice. It is a spending choice, just like building a wall at the border, putting more bombers in the sky, and improving roads and bridge. It shouldn\u2019t (and doesn\u2019t have to be) a choice that bankrupts the nation, but it does raise the question: what is the role of government to the people\u2019s health? Does the Constitutional admonition to \u201c\u2026promote the general welfare\u2026\u201d include their health, or is that a \u201cpersonal responsibility?\u201d<\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/339234-sanders-thousands-will-die-under-gop-health-bill<\/a><\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2017\/05\/02\/alabama-congressman-people-who-lead-good-lives-dont-have-preexisting-conditions\/<\/a><\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/06\/26\/us\/politics\/senate-health-care-bill-republican.html<\/a><\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> https:\/\/twitter.com\/mike_pence\/status\/878669323929341952<\/a><\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a>\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/wonk\/wp\/2012\/06\/28\/the-supreme-court-surprise-medicaid-ruling-could-reduce-coverage\/?utm_term=.e20eff9e530e<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    View from the Other Side Senator Bernie Sanders says that if the GOP Health Care Plan passes, \u201c\u2026thousands will die.\u201d [1] Congressman Mo Brooks says that \u201c\u2026people who lead good lives\u2026\u201d don\u2019t have to worry about pre-existing conditions.[2] The Congressional Budget Office says that that 15 million people will lose their insurance if the plan … Continue reading “View from the Other Side”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nView from the Other Side : Our America - 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