A friend sends me this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Rf42zNl9U
Two things strike me about this video:
(I should say at the outset that I generally favor the free market but am skeptical about its ability to solve the health care crisis.)
First, I see similarities between the tactics of opponents of socialized medicine and those of proponents of gay marriage: (a) They use anecdotal evidence, profiling a poor bloke who was forced to wait x months for a given treatment. In the case of gay marriage, they profile a gay couple that suffers hardship because their union is not legally recognized. Both camps attempt to pull at our heartstrings, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that what’s good for one person or couple is what’s best for the country. (b) They use the courts to accomplish what they can’t attain legislatively. Both camps know that it’s much easier to convince a single judge than it is to persuade the country at large, and it can have more immediate and far-reaching results.
Second, it would seem that if universal health care is really so bad, there would be a movement to get rid of it in countries that have it. But in fact the momentum is going in the other direction: There are proposals to implement the system in countries that don’t have it. Perhaps that’s because (a) people are generally happy with socialized medicine, and (b) it’s generally associated with a higher standard of living.
Now I don’t think universal health care is the entire solution either, but we should recognize disingenuous tactics when we see them.
