That’s what an airline pilot told me after he asked what I did for a living. To which I responded that France’s health care system costs a lot less than ours’ and delivers excellent results.
End of conversation.
I would have been happy to engage further but he wasn’t. The rest of the ride in the hotel shuttle was awfully quiet.
The mis- and dis-information spread by pundits and politicians about the Democrats’ plans for health reform is having its desired effect, at least on those predisposed to believe their claims. Whether the superficial ‘understanding’ evidenced by the captain’s statement will be affected is anyone’s guess but it is clear that reform opponents are ramping up their efforts to ‘Harry and louise’ the 2009 version of reform.
President Obama and his fellow Democrats have not done a very good job convincing Amerucan voters that they can keep the health care they have today-if they want to. The message discipline that typified Obama’s campaign has been noticeably absent in the health care reform discussion; if it doesn’t return and fast the chances of major reform becoming law are going to diminish by the day.
Fear is a powerful motivator, and reform’s opponents have shown themselves to be masterful in its use in the public discussion.
Jun
24
Joe– perhaps the captain thought that meant we would all have to eat snails. I try to shy away from the political aspects of this debate, as opposed to what the facts tell us about what works and what does not, but I have to say that the Demos have done a great job of turning health care reform into something like confusion worse confounded– and that scares people. I begin to wonder whether they talk to each other or just to reporters. This is not being well managed and the real issues are being obscured by the he said, she said. Pity.
The President didn’t help yesterday when he failed to adequately address the question as to what happens if an employer decides to drop its private group coverage in favor of the public plan. There are too many unanswered questions, because the specifics are still being nailed down.
The exchange you described is typical. There are many who choose rhetoric over reason.
Joe, I was in France last week, and there are a lot of people that don’t like their system there. They have pharmacy stores in numbers that make Walgreens look like a small company. They also pay taxe levels that would not be tolerated in the US.
The French just recently went to a 39 hour work week. To compare us to France is not helpful at all to me in the debate. It anything it’s just the opposite. France has a new leader that is working hard to get the French working again.
I will take the American system any day.
Joe .. Dems are not so much ineffectively countering the misinformation — though there’s that too. What they are failing to do is “tell the story.” Yes, they talk about the uninsured and their plight, but they never paint a picture of what health care is like in say, France. Why is it excellent? Why do people love it? How do they experience it? (you don’t either). Why don’t they talk about how health care is delivered for some common situations that everyone can relate to? High blood pressure. Diabetes. Having a baby. Having a premature baby. Getting a kidney stone. Toddler with ear infection. The Repubs are unfortunately doing a better job of telling wrong stories about waiting in lines and being denied care if you’re over 70 or not getting chemo. That’s what’s sticking in people’s minds.
I am confident that meaningful reform will take place. Movement might continue to focus on the fiscal realities of the current systems lack of sustainability and the lack of any credibility of the current players to change their drivers and behaviors unless there is a systemic overhaul. The problems are legion, including the perverse incentives of the current fee-for-service system and in my view, first dollar coverage of predictable and affordable expenses.
But let’s face it, any meaningful reform will reduce the overall GDP and dollars in the system and there will be major economic losers. The big fight is entirely expected and understandable.
The pilot was wrong for putting done France’s very good system. Joe, you were wrong for making the comparison. I WISH we were heading towards a socialized Health Care System. What Obama is forced into producing at this point is nothing like France’s system.