Health Care Debate: Where’s the passion?
In a wonderful op-ed in The New York Times today, Charles M. Blow becomes the first person I’ve heard or read to decipher what I think is the fundamental problem with this year’s health care debate. Specifically, Blow writes;
One of the most frustrating aspects of the health care debate is that the people who most want reform are the most apathetic about it.
And despite the fact that more Democrats support the president’s health care initiative, they just don’t seem as engaged as their counterparts in the Republican party:
[A]ccording to a Gallup poll released … only 47 percent of Democrats said that they had a good understanding of the issues involved in the current health care debate. Fifty-eight percent of the Republicans polled said that they understood.
Furthermore, a Pew Research Center poll released on Thursday found that Democrats were the least likely to say that they were following the debate over health care reform “very closely.” Only 42 percent of Democrats said that they were, compared with 45 percent of the independents and 56 percent of the Republicans polled.
And while Democrats are sitting it out, Republicans are storming in.
In a nutshell,the Republicans may will their way to victory, thusly denying any chance at real reform, simply by giving more of a damn. This is very sad, and I suspect this has to do with the belief of many on the Democratic side that they should not have to fight for health care, because they believe it to be a fundamental right. I believe that full and free health care should be a right if the government has the resources to provide such—indeed, the U.S. government does have such resources. However, neither the U.S. government, nor the citizens of the U.S., have historically held much of a collectivist bent.
I think the president will get some sort of bill through the congress, and it may contain an affordable public option if the president wants to risk the capital. But real reform is going to take a lot more time, and a public option is only the start.
