At The News & Observer J. Peder Zane articulates the great divide on views about health care reform pretty succinctly:
Consider the recent discussion regarding health care. Many on the left contend that Republicans oppose the Affordable Care Act simply because it was the signature achievement of America’s first black president. They might believe it; and feel good saying it. But how does this help us reform a broken system?
That approach is doubly problematic because it invites high-pitched emotion to dominate what should be a serious debate. It transforms a complex discussion about money – the costs, benefits and wrenching tradeoffs of our health care system – into a simplistic moral crusade. It leads otherwise intelligent people to dig in their heels and declare the ACA a great success.
It isn’t. And don’t take my word for it. Progressive leaders including senators Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer have admitted the law is deeply flawed. While campaigning for his wife last year, President Bill Clinton committed the ultimate gaffe – defined these days as when a politician utters an inconvenient truth – when he described Obamacare as a “crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people that are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half.â€
Some will surely say “how dare you count pennies over a grave moral question?” It’s not quite that simple:
Nevertheless, once we get past the name-calling and fix-it fantasies, the problem is relatively simple: How much can we and should we spend on health care? It gets a lot more complicated when we consider that every dollar we spend on health care is a dollar we can’t spend on education, infrastructure, defense and other needs.
which are grave moral questions as well. It cannot be moral to throw money down a bottomless well.
That conflict is why my emphasis has been and continues to be on cost control. The argument against cost control in health care is a political one not a moral one. It’s a lot easier for a politician to make friends by giving voters something than by telling them that we can’t afford to give them everything they want.
