This weekend brought press releases stating that the Obama administration was willing to take a public health insurance option off the table in order to achieve other necessary reforms. As a strong advocate of a single-payer, public plan, I take this news to heart. This is the first time I have felt that my strong support for Obama may have been ill-conceived. Oh, true, there really wasn't much of a choice in 2008, and at least the current administration will make different mistakes than its predecessor, but I had hoped for more. The health insurance issue is providing us with a telling indication of the balance of power between those advocating the public good and those representing the power of the corporate few. As has been the case so often in recent years, the rich and powerful have effectively used talk radio and FOX News to manipulate a large segment of our society into doing their bidding.
In other news, CNN reports that 57% of those polled do not believe the stimulus plan is working. However, CNN does not report what percentage of those polled can spell "economics".
What ever happened to a discernment process? Health Care is complicated -- the bill is long -- and busy people are eager to believe what they expect to hear or what is pushed at them the hardest. We are a society that reacts instead of responds. Can we find a way to take a collective deep breath....listen more broadly and live more compassionately?
ReplyDelete