Common Sense

Timothy Noah over at Slate thinks that Bush’s veto of the S-CHIP reauthorization is bound to grease the wheels for those of us who want universal health care. I’m a little skeptical, but still hopeful, that he’s right about that.

S-CHIP has become a very important program for a lot of poor and middle class families. Even a middle class family may not be able to afford private insurance, just because private insurance is so damn expensive.

Talking today about why he vetoed the bill, Bush said:

I happen to believe that what you’re seeing when you expand eligibility for federal programs is the desire by some in Washington, D.C. to federalize health care. I don’t think that’s good for the country. I believe in private medicine. I believe in helping poor people—which was the intent of S-CHIP, now being expanded beyond its initial intent. I also believe that the federal government should make it easier for people to afford private insurance. I don’t want the federal government making decisions for doctors and customers.

As Noah points out, what he reall means is “I believe in private health insurance” which is only too happy to make decisions for doctors and ‘patients.’ It’s funny that he used the word customers instead of patients when you stop and think about it.

And those private health insurance decisions usually revolve around what makes the most money for the insurance company, not what is in the best interest of the patient. In fact, the two are usually in direct conflict. The insurance company makes more money by taking your premiums and denying your claims. The patient gets better health care (and therefore gets better from whatever malady sent him to a doctor in the first place) if his doctor gets paid.

Even though you would think that this does perfectly set up the debate about how universal health care would benefit everyone (except the private insurance companies) I’m just not totally convinced that soccer moms and NASCAR dads are get up in arms over this.

The people who could turn the political tide, so to speak, are going to be directly affected by this veto. But will they stop being lazy and do something about it? Will they back comprehensive universal health care for everyone because their little Suzie will no longer have health coverage from the state and federal governments?

Maybe if we make Sicko mandatory viewing, people are going to start waking up and realize the federal government won’t be making medical decisions, they’ll just be paying your doctor to be your doctor. The scary ’socialized medicine bogeyman’ isn’t as scary when you find out we pay the same amount for health care as other countries, like France, but not all of us are covered (47 million uninsured!) and we get worse care.

We’re getting ripped off by people with the president’s kind of thinking and we can only hope Noah’s right that the debate is about to start up thanks to our very dumb president. This time, his moronic behavior may end up doing some good for the rest of us, though. We’ll find out when the House votes to override the veto in mid-October.

Timothy Noah over at Slate thinks that Bush’s veto of the S-CHIP reauthorization is bound to grease the wheels for those of us who want universal health care. I’m a little skeptical, but still hopeful, that he’s right about that.

S-CHIP has become a very important program for a lot of poor and middle class families. Even a middle class family may not be able to afford private insurance, just because private insurance is so damn expensive.

Talking today about why he vetoed the bill, Bush said:

I happen to believe that what you’re seeing when you expand eligibility for federal programs is the desire by some in Washington, D.C. to federalize health care. I don’t think that’s good for the country. I believe in private medicine. I believe in helping poor people—which was the intent of S-CHIP, now being expanded beyond its initial intent. I also believe that the federal government should make it easier for people to afford private insurance. I don’t want the federal government making decisions for doctors and customers.

As Noah points out, what he reall means is “I believe in private health insurance” which is only too happy to make decisions for doctors and ‘patients.’ It’s funny that he used the word customers instead of patients when you stop and think about it.

And those private health insurance decisions usually revolve around what makes the most money for the insurance company, not what is in the best interest of the patient. In fact, the two are usually in direct conflict. The insurance company makes more money by taking your premiums and denying your claims. The patient gets better health care (and therefore gets better from whatever malady sent him to a doctor in the first place) if his doctor gets paid.

Even though you would think that this does perfectly set up the debate about how universal health care would benefit everyone (except the private insurance companies) I’m just not totally convinced that soccer moms and NASCAR dads are get up in arms over this.

The people who could turn the political tide, so to speak, are going to be directly affected by this veto. But will they stop being lazy and do something about it? Will they back comprehensive universal health care for everyone because their little Suzie will no longer have health coverage from the state and federal governments?

Maybe if we make Sicko mandatory viewing, people are going to start waking up and realize the federal government won’t be making medical decisions, they’ll just be paying your doctor to be your doctor. The scary ’socialized medicine bogeyman’ isn’t as scary when you find out we pay the same amount for health care as other countries, like France, but not all of us are covered (47 million uninsured!) and we get worse care.

We’re getting ripped off by people with the president’s kind of thinking and we can only hope Noah’s right that the debate is about to start up thanks to our very dumb president. This time, his moronic behavior may end up doing some good for the rest of us, though. We’ll find out when the House votes to override the veto in mid-October.