The question begs the question. Here’s what I mean:
Start off with contrasting ‘responsible’ with ‘socialist’ and we’re off to the races. The contrast itself is loaded…as if the issue is a battle between the forces of good..(ie.responsibility) and the forces of evil (ie.socialism)…whatever the hell either word has come to mean in this era of sound-bites and slithery partisan motivated demonizing ‘talking points’. Those ‘talking points’ have actually gotten the news media to call the Democratic Party (as it was called from this country’s beginnings)the “Democrat Party” in one generation…feeding the media coffers with millions of millions in the process. Public opinion is a commodity these people buy…and unfortunately, we have sold much of it to them. We’ve become a nation whose consciousness is for sale. Until now.
Once the battle has been launched between two manufactured adversaries, it is hard to ever bring it back to its true and most basic elements.
There IS an debate to be found here, but I don’t think it is between a ‘responsible’ national health care system or a ‘socialist’ one. It is, instead, a debate between having a health care system that is accessible and accountable to every citizen, and one that is not…a bottom line profit oriented run by corporate insurance company CEOs who pick multimillion buck bonuses off your tax dollars before you ever get your flu shot. I put these in reverse order from that in the title to minimize my own proud and obvious bias.
The most responsible idea as far as the essential provision of health care to all the citizens of this country is to provide a single payer plan that gives everyone access to quality care without the need to share the wealth with Big Insurance.
They (Big Insurance)would like us to believe that getting medical care without their pilfering interference would put us all on the road to perdition…or…in the words of their well paid lobbyists, to socialism.
If Medicare is socialism and evil, then I suppose Big Insurance would have some kind of argument; but when you realize the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Big Insurance to connect any insurance plan that protects YOU without THEM, you may get some idea of how much they have at stake here besides your health and welfare.
Medicare works just fine…thank you very much…and aside from well heralded and exaggerated claims against it, has kept a lot of older people alive and enjoying their families for many more years than they would have had without it. Problems? Sure. But not ones that a watchful oversight can’t cure. Who’s overlooking Big Insurance?
Canada’s.the UK’s,Germany’s, France’s and all other ‘first world countries’ health care are very well functioning systems despite the many millions spent(Google to see how much Big Insurance has lobbied your congressperson re:national health care) to convince us that they are really ‘socialist hell’. I think if they needed to associate a health care program with pedophilia in order to get us riled up against it…they’d do that in a heartbeat. A lot of bucks are at stake here…and many good people and good ideas have been destroyed for a lot less.
Whatever fear it takes to convince us that our best health care interests can only be fulfilled by building their third house or sending their kids to the best prep schools and colleges, they will create it while curbing your doctor’s ability to practice his best medicine and curbing costs of supporting nurses and therapists. After all, the ‘XYZ Health Care Plan’ knows more about your best interests than any measly health care professional. Do you really believe that?
As for ‘accountability’…well, you gotta love ’em and their sheer (and well paid for) chutzpah. Those ‘responsible’ Big Insurance companies believe that all they have to do is bombard us with their propagandistic reality warps and we’ll buy into it. Maybe once. Not any more.
Having a national health care system is a responsible idea. Socialism (government ownership of production and services)has nothing to do with it.
We must be more concerned with protection of our families health from sickness and disease that we are concerned with that protection being branded with a well planted and fertilized forbidden word that will make it go away.