With one of their points in the debate over SCHIP, conservative pundits and politicians have shown the way to the future for health care in the U.S. No, I don't mean stalking and trying to ruin people who take advantage of popular government programs in order to save the lives of their children.
I'm talking about how the conservatives fault the Frosts and other families like them for not making sure they have adequate insurance coverage. I think the statement is correct, but only after removing the large dose of fraudulence that the today's right manages to insert into everything they do.
The majority of jobs I have seen available in the area where I live do not carry insurance coverage. I do not think my area in unique in this respect. And therein resides the fraud that the conservatives are trying to hide under a blanket.
They are gleeful in singling out and showing, one at a time, how awful it is that instead of making a crusade of guaranteeing their family had adequate insurance, families are taking their only remaining option in a time of emergency. But imagine what happens when this rationale is expanded out across the entire population of Americans who wish they had coverage. If every single American who needed health insurance refused to accept a job or vote for a politician until they were told, if something bad happens, you and your family will be able to get treatment without the risk of financial ruin.
By faulting the Frosts, the right is saying that citizens need to be more forceful in obtaining insurance. I believe that somewhere in the fantasy realm that they refer to as policy, Ronald Reagan will descend from the firmament, become president until the end times, and the resulting business expansion will generate so much corporate wealth that insurance will flow from the suddenly generous companies like wine. Or jellybeans, I suppose.
I think we all recognize that we should leave the toddlers to play their Candyland and let ourselves get down to the business of joining the civilized world in making sure our citizens can go to the doctor without going bankrupt. There not really many options moving forward, and they have been well documented over the years. The republicans have issued the challenge: make sure you and your family are insured or we will rail against your immorality. So here are the possibilities the GOP leaves us with:
Unionize: If we have a job, but there is not insurance, the right says that is not a job we should have. Well, if we should not have it, neither should anyone else. So we can collectively march into the office of the people running the company and thell them that conservative pundits say we are bad parents and bad people if we accept a job that carries no insurance, and we don't want to let them down.
Strike: If a business refuses or is unable to provide this insurance, the employees should refuse to work. After all, as the right points out, if they do, knowing the business is not providing insurance, they are being irresponsible.
Vote: As the conservatives have pointed out, people really, really do have to make sure they have insurance. I think we all can recognize that the first two options are not going to cover every single person. So in some ways, the most efficient way of fixing the problem of Americans going about their lives uninsured is to, through governmental action, insure them. On face value, this is an idea the right loathes. We would be more like the rest of the world. They would not have a system set up so they could play "gotcha" and demonize people who have bad things happen to them. Plus it would probably have a popularity on par with Social Security (meaning people would still gripe about it, but god forbid you try to take it away).
But we would be meeting their challenge, where they say we are being weak and not looking out for the future by ducking the issue. I say to America, let's not hide from the issue any longer and eliminate the scourge of uninsured people, and uninsured families.
Oh, and conservatives? Thanks for the pointer. Why don't you keep playing Candyland and dreaming about the Gipper. The rest of us will take it from here.