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Health Care Reform Update: Right Wing Arguments Against Health Care Reform

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by Alta Price

A listener named Sean (or perhaps Shawn) sent this to the
Stephanie Miller Show, and Steph read it on
Tuesday, September 8, during the first hour of the show. I modified it
slightly, since apparently there were 20 arguments, but Steph only read 18.

Right wing arguments against health care reform:

1. Although efforts have been made to reform health care since 1912, we should not be too hasty in enacting change.

2. The federal government has no business interfering in people’s health care decisions unless a woman is trying to terminate a pregnancy or unless the patient’s last name is “Schiavo.”

3. The government is incapable of running anything efficiently and if allowed to offer a health care option will run it so efficiently it will put private insurers out of business.

4. Some people just don’t deserve health care.

5. We’re a Christian nation; we don’t believe in helping people with the least among us.

6. The current system, with 47 million uninsured, a million medical bankruptcies annually, and 18,000 deaths annually due to lack of insurance, is working just fine; in fact, we have the best health care system in the world!

7. Even though many older couples are forced to divorce in order to avoid catastrophic financial losses due to medical expenses, it’s the homosexuals who are destroying families.

8. Conversation with your doctor about end-of-life issues is an opportunity for your doctor to convince you to kill yourself.

9. We can afford to spend more on our military than all other nations combined, but we can’t afford universal health care.

10. Single payer government-run health care is good enough for our men and women in uniform, but to offer the same to the general public would be socialism.

11. Socialism is bad.

12. Pooling our resources to provide roads, schools, clean water, military, police, and fire protection for each other is not socialism; pooling our resources to provide each other health care is socialism.

13. Socialism is bad, very bad. Bad.

14. Health care is an issue best handled by individual states, like slavery.

15. We can afford to subsidize Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan, all of whom have universal health care, but we can’t afford it ourselves.

16. Someone like physicist Stephen Hawking would have been allowed to die under the British health care system.

17. Oh, he’s British? And alive? Never mind.

18. We already have universal health care – it’s called the emergency room. Uninsured people can go there for all their health needs and it only costs the taxpayers a few thousand dollars per visit.

19. Socialism is bad, very bad. Boo!

20. The Obama health care initiative is part of a liberal-communist-Nazi-socialist-Islamo-fascist-gay-atheist-zombie-transsexual-cannibal-sociopath-evolutionist agenda to take away your freedom.

I used to listen to Stephanie on a local, Clear Channel
station that broadcast many Air America shows, as well as other progressive
hosts like Stephanie and Ed Schultz who aren’t
part of Air America. But after the 2006 election, disastrous for Republicans in
Congress, Clear Channel flipped many of their progressive stations around the
country to different formats.

In District 1 here in Iowa, Bruce Braley handily beat the
Republican candidate, and Clear Channel suddenly decided we needed a fourth
Christian radio station in our market, and no progressive radio station. That’s
when I discovered the Stephcast (only $4.95 a month when you buy a year in
advance – ding!), bought an
iPod (and learned how to use it). Now I listen to Steph and the Mooks (Jim Ward
and Chris Lavoie) when I drive in my car, and there aren’t even commercials.
Still, it would be nice to support local radio stations and local businesses
advertising on them, so I hope we make some progress on getting local control
of our media.

Alta
Price is a physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of
the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America,
Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health
care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for the
Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum).  Watch for Dr. Price's Health Care Reform Update every Tuesday here on Blog for Iowa.  E-Mail Alta Price