REBUTTAL: Top 10 Reasons to Oppose Obamacare, Jeffrey Anderson? I don't think so!

ANOTHER top ten. Really?

Jeffrey Anderson's "Top 10 Reasons to Oppose Obamacare" is now making the Right Rounds.

Come on... I said this before and I'll say it again: A top ten list? Really? Does the Right really believe something so important should be boiled down to some sort of pseudo-humorous Late-Night sound-byte? Real health care debate is seriously harmed by this sort of compendious argument - but that's probably the point, because in a real debate, the Right would lose, and a top-ten list like this doesn't hold any water.

Here are Jeffrey's arguments, point by point, and my rebuttal:

***

1. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: ObamaCare’s centerpiece, a Medicare-like “public option,” would cause millions of Americans to lose their employer-provided health insurance.

How many millions of Americans have already lost or never even had employer-provided health insurance, Jeffrey? How many do you know? Or do they fly so far under your radar, you could care less about them, Jeffrey? Right now, if someone loses their job (not unlikely, considering the current economic climate, thank you GWB) they will also lose their insurance. COBRA is too expensive for families to continue their coverage. Heck, even individuals have a hard time coming up with a COBRA payment. Without Obama's short-lived AARA act, COBRA would be totally out of the question for most folks. With a public option, folks who lose their employer-provided health insurance will be able to get insurance, regardless of their income or pre-existing conditions. Sure, a public option might cause some reduction in employer provided health care, but the 118 million fear-mongering figure cited from the Lewin Group is suspiciously high. Why? Because the Lewin Group is owned by the health care industry. Do you smell a rat, yet, Jeffrey? Or are you too busy smelling the roses?

2. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: Government-run health care would lead to rationing.

Private health care already rations your care! They ration care based on profit, not on evidence or evidence-based medicine. Don't you know that care is already rationed in the U.S.? It's rationed solely based on your ability (or not) to pay. Insurance big-wigs are the ones making the calls about your insurance now. Is that how you like it, Jeffrey? Because you can afford your outrageous insurance premium, or because your employer makes enough to be able to supply you with an employer-based option, you think it's okay for corporations to be making decisions about everyone else's health care - for those folks who can't afford what you can, Jeffrey? That's okay with you, I guess? The reality is that profit drives the current health care market, and when that happens, you get the disaster of a system we're currently living with. Profit as a motivation works in some sectors, and is the cornerstone of capitalism - but it doesn't always work in every instance. How would it be if your local fire department worked on and made decisions based solely on a profit-margin, like health insurance companies do? If you couldn't afford to pay them to point their water-hoses on your house, well... I'm sorry, but the baby in that upstairs bedroom you couldn't reach without an oxygen mask? That baby is going to die. Why? Well, it's more profitable for your fire department to save the factory down the street and the mansion on the other side of town, that's why. Is that the kind of world you want to live in, Jeffrey? It may be alright for you, Jeffrey, but for most Americans, the current system pretty much sucks. The already-existing rations aren't anywhere near enough - at least with a public option, the rations might actually reach everyone who needs them!

3. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: ObamaCare would cost a fortune, and we’re already running higher deficits than during the Great Depression.

We are running higher deficits than ever because the last eight years with GWB was a continual blank-check spending spree on the invisible boogeyman - the "war on terror." Obama was left with arguably the biggest mess in the history of this country to clean up. Even so, his health care expenditures will help expand coverage, reduce costs and help the health care system outlive all the retiring "gimme" boomers who are threatening to collapse it.

4. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: ObamaCare would ruin private insurance.

Dude - how much worse can it get? Seriously? A public option not only gives people another choice and helps avoid gaps in coverage due to loss of employment (or pre-existing conditions) - it will provide competition between private companies who have grown fat and lazy feeding off the outrageous premiums they receive!

5. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: ObamaCare would encourage people to leave the medical profession.

Oh Jeffrey. I'm ashamed of you. Do you really think people become doctors because they want to make money? I wouldn't want a doctor who went to med school so he could become a millionaire! I want a doctor who cares about helping and healing people. Do you know how many doctors turn away from the profession already, because private insurance makes their life a living-billing-hell? How many times private insurance will dictate a doctor's decision or care, based on the sort of coverage someone can pay for and how quickly doctors burn out? The fact is, employment in the health industry would most likely increase rather than decrease with a public option, because there would be more people covered by insurance and more demand for health care workers. Unlike the big corporations and private insurance companies, not everyone in the U.S. is motivated by their profit margin and bottom line. People still do choose to do the things they love to do... I have no doubt that would continue in the health care sector, as it does elsewhere. I'm sorry you underestimate your fellow Americans, Jeffrey. That's just so sad.

6. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: In addition to increasing deficits, ObamaCare would increase overall health costs.

You have provided no evidence to prove this - none. Truly, your study does nothing to address the real costs. Where is your evidence, where is the proof? It's like a house of cards - poof - one good gust of wind and the whole thing collapses. What your study DOES prove is that private insurance companies can make more money by denying more countless Americans insurance coverage. Way to go, Jeffrey. That's how you keep the status quo! Comfortable there, aren't you?

7. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: Based on Medicare’s track record, ObamaCare’s costs would almost certainly exceed estimates.

Sure. And there could have been weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And monkey could fly out of your butt, too. Is it possible? Yes. Does it matter? Meh. I just don't think so. If we're entering in the realm of speculation, even if the costs exceed estimates, the proposed plan is better than anything we have, and looks to be much more cost-effective than private insurance.

8. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: ObamaCare would create a two-tiered health-care system, to the detriment of the middle class.

Okay, Jeffrey, where have you been? Seriously, I think you need to take a little research break and get out more or something. We already have a two-tiered health system that is detrimental to the middle class (and lower class, don't forget them, Jeffrey, as you're wont to do!) The wealthy already get whatever they want, whenever they want it. It's always been that way. That's not going to change. But the two-tiered system we have already denies care to middle and lower-class folks. At least under the NEW two-tiered system, the lower and middle class people might actually (*gasp!*) get health care coverage where there once was none. I'd much rather have a two-tiered system that helps more people than a two-tiered system that benefits far fewer.

9. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: ObamaCare would kill the prospects for real reform.

Ummmm. What reform? They gleefully shot Hilary down and then what did those opposing, reforming Republicans do? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. They laughed all the way to the bank...well, to their tax accountants' office anyway. They sat on their hands. They hemmed, they hawed. They hee-hee'd behind our backs. And they DID NOTHING. There is no reform coming from the Right, never has been, never will be. ObamaCare doesn't kill prospects for real reform - there were no prospects to kill. ObamaCare IS the real reform.

10. Jeffrey Anderson's Claim: The centralization of power in Washington saps the strength of our citizenry and slowly deprives us of liberty.

You're all about liberty... great. But you forgot two of the founding fathers' inalienable rights: LIFE, liberty and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. They go together, Jeffrey. You can't have liberty if you're dead, as Patrick Henry well knew. Are you willing to sacrifice your life for liberty, as he was? You are, apparently, willing to sacrifice OTHER PEOPLE'S lives (and hence, their liberty.) Lots of them. Because we're talking about saving lives. Health care reform will save lives. We're talking about tens of millions of Americans who are dying, every day, because they don't have health insurance. We're talking about women who didn't get a breast lump checked out when it was treatable because they didn't have access to health insurance. We're talking about babies who died in the womb because their mothers couldn't afford health care. We're talking about real people, with real LIVES, who no longer have any liberty or chance to pursue happiness, because they are DEAD.

You, apprarently, are willing to sacrifice those people to your cause of liberty, Jeffrey. But I am not. Obama is not. And thank god for that. I have great hopes for humanity, great hopes for our future, and in it, I do envision the possibility that even you, Jeffrey, will learn to value a human life over some intellectual notion of freedom.

But we shall see.