How to Argue Healthcare Reform with a Liberal

Pres. Obama is once again Candidate Obama, out on the hustings to pitch his healthcare “reform” plan and promising the world to anyone who will listen. His latest whistlestop was Chicago where he tried to entice the AMA into his tent by teasing that he might be open to medical tort reform.

So your friends on the left, informed by what Rush Limbaugh calls the “state-run” media, are going to harangue you about how our healthcare system is so irretrievably broken that Uncle must step in and radically reform it into something approaching the British National Health Service.

Don’t believe it. And to help you inform the debate I’ve put together the following primer on how to debate your lefty friends on the issue of healthcare. This really isn’t too hard. The Left thinks they occupy the high moral ground on this, just as they think they occupy the high moral ground on everything else: terrorism, welfare, the tax code and the climate. And if you think you're more moral, you don't need facts. So, a few factual retorts will send them off to refill their glass of Chablis.  When they trot out the same old unproven assertions, here’s what to say: 

• “46 million people can’t get healthcare coverage.” This is the bromide you’ll hear more than any other. Here’s what to say: “This number doesn’t relate to the healthcare debate. It’s taken from a Census Bureau study several years ago. It’s not an indication of a crisis. The number equates to the number of people uninsured at the exact moment the question was asked, not the number of people who are chronically uninsured. Second, 14 of the 45 million are low-income Americans eligible for government assistance programs like Medicaid, Medicare or the SCHIP program, although most, for whatever reason, choose not to enroll. Third, 28 of the 46 million earn $50,000 and can afford to buy their own insurance but choose not to do so. Fourth, 10 million of those in that survey weren’t U.S. citizens and weren’t eligible at that time for any plan. So you’re left with about 8 million people who are chronically uninsured and need help. That’s a far cry from 46 million, and hardly merits the radical restructuring the President is pushing.”
  
• “But health insurance is so complicated. If the government ran it, it would be much simpler and efficient for all American because it would cut out the middleman—the insurance companies.” Okay. Ask this question: “What does the government do that’s simple and efficient? How simple is it to deal with the IRS?” How efficient is the INS? Then you follow it up with this: “The government’s own Medicare system wastes 30% of every dollar it spends. Medicaid fraud in some states like New York can run 40%. Is this record of government-run healthcare worth expanding? And, oh, by the way, the fact that healthcare coverage is expensive is partly due to the fact that the government caps Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements to providers, who then shift the cost of that care to those of us with private coverage.” Touché.
  
• “Yeah, but if you let the government provide insurance, the private companies would have a low cost competitor that would drive down rates.” Interesting theory, my quiche-eating leftist friend…Here’s what you say: “First of all, one cost driver (you might have to explain cost driver and other free market terms) is the fact that the government’s own inefficient insurance plans—Medicare and Medicaid—cap what Uncle will pay to providers. That means the providers charge us more to make up the difference. With Uncle now instituting a third plan—the euphemistically disguised “public option—we’ll have more inefficiency in the system, which will increase private rates even more. What happens then? Everyday Joes and Janes will be forced out of the private plans and into GovCare. That's because with the private insurers gone, you'll have one option: the public option. And I think if you have one choice it’s not really called an option. It’s called a monopoly. Or, in this case, socialized medicine. Oh, by the way, monopolies can charge whatever they want.
  
• “OK, Mr. Factoid, but the government has already said that it will pay for preventive care programs which we all know keep the cost of healthcare down.” At this point, you shake your head slowly back and forth, tracing little circles in the condensation on the outside of your beer bottle. Then you say: “Let me help you with this. Actually, they don’t. It’s been 15 years since the government ordered that manufacturers place nutrition information on packaged foods, so that Americans could choose healthier foods. Since then Americans have become fatter than ever. It’s been more than 40 years—two generations—since the government connected smoking and bad health, and started spending billions of your tax dollars on smoking cessation programs, yet people still smoke. And by the way, some of the healthcare crises that the government declares, as a way to use your tax dollars for “prevention,” are based on junk science. The government’s own metrics for determining obesity are flawed. What do professional quarterback Tom Brady, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and actors Brad Pitt and Matt Damon have in common? If you use the government’s own calculations, they’re all obese. So there are no real facts to show that government prevention programs really work, because their science is often shoddy—using research to justify a conclusion they started with. They should really stay out of the prevention business.”
  
• “But healthcare costs so much….” Ignore the plaintive whining as the case for socialized medicine becomes undone. Place your hand gently on the shoulder of your leftist friend, and say quietly, “But Muffy, what doesn’t cost more these days? You’re right; 50 years ago your great-grandfather spent about $500 on healthcare. Today we all spend a lot more. Back then great-grandpa bought what was called major medical. It was catastrophic insurance, basically. Now we expect insurers to provide preventive care: dental cleanings, eye exams, colonoscopies, and mammographies. Compare that to your car insurance. You’re insured if you drive into someone else’s car or cause an accident or injure someone. Imagine what it would cost if the insurance company had to cover oil changes, front end alignments or tune-ups. I'll cop to healthcare costing more, but think what you get for it. Over the last 50 years the death rate from heart disease has gone down 50%. In fact in the last ten years or so, it’s gone down 22 percent. So it’s not an issue of cost; it’s an issue of cost benefit.”
  

 The good news is that you might even change some minds, although that’s doubtful. It’s more likely that you’re lefty friends will begin to fear what’s happened to you. Right wing thought control. Kiss off that invitation to the country club soiree. The neighborhood barbeque? Forget it. But when you have to wait six months for a throat culture, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you were right. 

Just thought you might like to know.