Excellent Krugman column in today's New York Times.
It begins:
"At a recent town hall meeting, a man stood up and told Representative Bob Inglis to 'keep your government hands off my Medicare.' The congressman, a Republican from South Carolina, tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program -- but the voter, Mr. Inglis said, 'wasn't having any of it.'
"It's a funny story -- but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. It's not just that many Americans don't understand what President Obama is proposing; many people don't understand the way American health care works right now. They don't understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldn't be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance.
"And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at all."
Read the whole thing here.
There's a lot of myth surrounding the health care debate right now. I've heard some of it myself. I got a call from an elderly woman who said she didn't like the idea of socialized medicine. I asked her whether she had Medicare. She said she did. I asked her, What do you think that is? She said, That's different.
No. It's not.
The myth that government health care would be burdened by a huge bureaucracy is simply that, a myth, perpetuated, apparently by people who have never had to deal with the red tape of getting a private insurer to pay a claim.
Right now, the health care debate in the country is being driven by politicians who represent big insurers. If the people were driving this debate, there'd be no question that a public option is necessary for reforming an out-of-control system.
On a personal note, when my father was sick, we had to deal with both his private insurance company and Medicare. Medicare was a dream to deal with. The private insurer, not so much. It gave us the run-around at every step of the way.
Now, tell me which bureaucracy was harder to deal with.
