Health care reform and deaf ears

Ideas about health care reform have been tossed around for some time now. After going from a year without insurance to paying more than $1200 for a shoddy plan through school, in addition to exorbitant tuition, a public option seemed too good to be true. And so it was. Today folks are saying that the public option is dead. If it is really off the table, it’s a damn shame.

The problems with the current health care system are numerous and complicated. Costs of health care are astronomical, even for the most basic procedure. Millions of people- young and old- are uninsured; and those who are lucky enough to have insurance, often find themselves stuck with hefty bills as well. While people find themselves taking on insurmountable debt just to stay alive, insurance company shareholders and executives are becoming richer and richer. Allowing the free market to dictate a price on health does not work for many reasons. But that’s not what this post is about.

For most people, a good amount of time and research are needed to grasp the many issues at stake in the health care debates. It is even harder to understand the proposed solutions as so many future predictions are involved. Almost immediately after Obama proposed a public option for health care, people were screeching about the irreversible harms it would lead to and every other cataclysmic ending that would ensue. This boggles my mind. How is it that these people understood so quickly 1) what Obama’s public option entailed 2) how it would affect the current healthcare system and 3) the costs and benefits involved.

The importance of free speech can not be overstated. It is wonderful to see the number of Americans who came to the town hall debates to voice their own concerns about health care reform. Yet I can’t help but feel slightly nauseous when I watch the protesters and their ilk piously chant the baseless talking points created by the insurance lobbies and conservative celebrities such as Palin and O’Reilly. Willful ignorance to promote one’s own agenda is inexcusable and only slows the process of reaching the best solution.

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to reason with the unreasonable. Whether with an irrational lover, a manipulative boss, or a roommate who lives in his own world, the experience is uniformly disheartening. No matter how clear and coherent the explanation, the unreasonable will come up with anything to avoid conceding another’s victory and their own loss.

How do we reach these people when they chronically misconstrue arguments, compare the incomparable, and jump to extreme conclusions instead of giving each proposal open-minded consideration?

When it comes to passing much needed health care reform, how can people be convinced if they won’t even turn off Fox news or Rush Limbaugh long enough to listen?
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