I've known for some time that no matter what the topic, there are folks somewhere on the Internet who'll be real a-holes about it. Still, I was amazed at some of the posted responses to Jimmy Kimmel's monologue about how infants shouldn't die due to birth defects.
There is a legit, non-dickish argument against the propriety of tax money going to certain expenditures which maybe the government shouldn't cover. I don't happen to agree with it in this case but I've had such discussions with people I thought were good, decent people. What surprised me in this case was the number of putative human beings who were furious at the assumption that they might give a shit if someone else's baby died.
Meanwhile, the Republicans look like they're close to ramming through this bill about which it can be said…
- There have been no public hearings.
- There's no final text.
- There's no updated CBO score.
- It is opposed by virtually every patient advocacy group and everyone in the health care industry.
- Congress is still exempted from the new rules that allow states to waive essential benefits.
- It raises premiums dramatically for older people.
- It removes Obamacare's protection against being turned down for a pre-existing condition.
- It would steadily gut Medicaid spending for the very poorest.
- It removes coverage from at least 24 million people, probably more.
- It slashes taxes on the rich by about a trillion dollars over ten years.
I stole that laundry list from Kevin Drum because it's so stunning that there is a constituency for all this. Conservative Congressfolks seem terrified that they'll pay a price with their base if it can be said that they didn't do everything possible to destroy Obamacare. I'm thinking a lot of them want to be on record as at least trying to achieve that…and then want the bill to fail in the Senate so they don't have to listen to a lot of "My wife died because people like you took away her health care!"
Donald Trump and his supporters talk a lot about Fake News. I think we need more discussion about Fake Solutions. You can't solve a Real Problem until you debunk and strip away the Fake Solutions. The staggering cost of medical care in this country is a Real Problem. It may not be a Real Problem for you at this particular moment but it will be.
(At first, I wrote, "…unless you're rolling in cash, it will be" but the truth is that if you are rolling in cash, you have or will have friends and/or relatives coming to you who are desperate for funds to save their lives. And unless you're the kind of person who can say "I don't care" when others suffer or die, you have a Real Problem there.)
From all I've read, it's apparent that "We'll set up high-risk insurance pools for the sickest people" is a Fake Solution. It's just segregating people who need a ton of money…and then not giving them that ton of money. It sounds like doing something for them but it isn't.
"We want to sell insurance across state lines" is a Fake Solution. So is "We should turn this over to the states." So are various ways to give people a tiny amount of money which you try to make sound like a lot. So is "Well, if people without insurance get sick, they can just go to an Emergency Room. That way, they get treated and no one has to pay!"
The Republican Health Care Bill is a Fake Solution. Even if you're in favor of it, you don't really think it's going to make the Real Problem go away, do you? Millions of people cannot afford Health Care. They need Health Care. We do nothing to lower the cost of Health Care and we take away financial assistance to these people and give huge tax cuts to zillionaires. You can't really think that's going to make this Real Problem go Really Away.