I've been growing increasingly disillusioned with the tenor of the debate over health care reform. If you listen to the American Medical Association, the GOP, and others who parrot Right-wing talking points, America is on the highway to Hell. Or socialism. Frankly, I'm not sure anyone's really bothering to differentiate between the two...just as long as it sinks the idea of a single-payer system.
Despite the lies, the propaganda, and the talking points relentlessly recited in the effort to preserve the status quo ante, one reality remains. No one has been able to make a convincing argument against a single-payer system. Think about it...when have you heard an argument that didn't go something like this:
BUTBUTBUT.... CANADA!! SOCIALISM!! BIG GOVERNMENT!! INEFFICIENCY!! NO CHOICE!! CANADA!! SOCIALISM!!
The lunacy is almost palpable...but it raises what I think is and should be the question central to this debate. How is it that the greatest, most powerful country in the world can bomb Afghan villages back to something resembling the Stone Age...yet we cannot guarantee health care for all Americans? How can a country with such an outsized self-image tolerate a system in which your socioeconomic status dictates your access to quality, affordable health care? What kind of society is willing to accept a system in which significant numbers of good and decent human beings are denied access to medical care due to a lack of ability to pay? The contents of your wallet should not dictate your worthiness to continue drawing breath.
That no one on the Right seems to understand the absurdity of doing whatever it takes to kill people but precious little to save them defies rational understanding. That Democrats seem willing to once again cave to Republicans on health care despite being an overwhelming majority is equally perplexing. America spares no expense in developing new and ever more powerful and efficient ways to kill people. Yet we STILL refuse to countenance a system that cares for all Americans, regardless of the contents of their bank account.
Yes, we may be able to dominate our adversaries militarily. We may have in our possession the most efficient and deadly weapons known to mankind...and yet we still cannot find it within ourselves to devote the same energy and ingenuity to caring for and perhaps even saving the least among us.
WE DESERVE BETTER...and those of you who think what we have now works just fine should be ashamed.
