Yesterday, I heard that Health Care for America is hosting a rally in DC for health reform next Thursday, June 25. Rallies can be an effective way to create a sense of solidarity and demonstrate unity. So why did I only hear yesterday? I also learned today that there's the National Nurses Organizing Committee is sponsoring a single payer lobby day to celebrate Medicare's 44th anniversary, also in DC, on June 30.
Health Care for America also has a terrific web campaign going on now to get U.S. Senators on the record with their positions on the public option. If you haven't done this, do it now.
But it may already be too late. As Amy Goodman notes, the insurance industry has already polluted the process, a fact that DrSteveB confirms. What can we do?
Detailed and passionate diaries appear here nearly every day on the subject of health reform. To a great extent we've avoided divisive squabbling about ideology and tactics, but it's possible that as a result we've resisted throwing all of our weight behind a demand for radical change.
Have we underestimated the political sway and economic power of the insurance industry to preserve the status quo? Now they've launched some pretty powerful ads that have ordinary people (people who would really benefit from public health insurance) complaining about socialism, about losing health care options, and generally drumming up opposition to any kind of meaningful reform.
This is a war of words, folks, a rhetorical war if you will, and we are losing. And that's because our task is a lot harder than theirs. Change is always harder than staying the same. And they've got the resources. We can't hire a flashy advertising agency to push peoples' buttons and play on their fears. We have to rely on truth, on reason, and persuding people one on one. That's a slower process, but we can make it effective.
To do that, I propose that we develop a set of talking points, which we can amend and collectively publish in this diary or elsewhere, to lay out our argument for health reform now. If you'll share your ideas, comments, critiques, I'll gladly compile your ideas and publish them tomorrow. But here's a start:
Progressive Talking Points on Health Reform.
#1: The People Want Meaningful "Health Reform".
Surveys show increasing support for the idea. One problem is, the term "health reform" is so uninspiring that people don't know what it means. (Yeah, I know I just used it, but you have to agree it's hardly designed to get people to take action.) It's vague, and easily appropriated, even (as Hunter pointed out yesterday) by those who merely want to tinker with a variety of private options.
#2: The Insurance industry is killing people.
As slinkerwink, nyceve and others have been pointing out recently and for some time past, privatized health insurance makes for chilling business calculations. When folks like W. talk about private industry being the solution to the crisis, they brazenly ignore the fact that private industry solves cost issues by throwing out peoples' claims and denying care. Private industry is great for selling TVs, but an industry that deals in peoples' lives is a different thing.
#3: Many Americans have public plans now.
People who complain about creeping socialism and "government takeovers" need to be shown the numbers. As I calculated the other day, fully a third of Americans have taxpayer-financed health insurance in various forms right now. And if you leave out the 50 million who have no coverage at all, that means that half of Americans that do have health care have some kind of publicly-funded plan.
#4: Only elitists can complain about "losing services" or "waiting lists".
Those complaints sure aren't coming from the 50 MILLION Americans who have no insurance whatsoever, the 50 Million uninsured Americans who need a public plan right now. With unemployment rising, that number is growing every single day. The arrogant folks who say that a public plan will limit their choices of doctors just aren't listening to the suffering of ordinary Americans. Their selfishness needs to be exposed, and quickly, so that the insurance lobby abandons that scare tactic. (Or, we need to counter-attack with ads like "My Jimmy is dying of a treatable disease so that you can have your choice of doctors.") Seriously, though, we can easily point to Canada's health insurance system, which allows choice in doctors while covering everyone: it's not an either/or.
#5: National Health Insurance will help the economy.
I find the accusation that national health insurance is bad for the economy very amusing, especially when touted by the key economic derailer of the twenty-first century, George W. Bush. In fact, national health insurance, and even a strong public option, will help the economy, by freeing private industry from the burden of providing health insurance as a benefit. This is especially important for small businesses' ability to grow.
#6: Health care is a right, not a privilege.
The U.S. diverged from other industrialized nations last century by linking health insurance to employment. It was a very conservative way to approach the problem, and it's part of the reason health care in this country has become so expensive. Increasingly, the global language of human rights, including the U.N. Declaration, views health care as a human right. Yes, it may be even harder to change the U.S. perspective now that entrenched financial interests hold it hostage, but the system now is so expensive, and out of control, that only a radical rethinking of the meaning of health care--of peoples' right to health care--will make real change possible.
What other talking points would you suggest? I'd say a list of five to ten would be very effective as a way to coordinate our rhetorical warfare.