An Old Friend Gave Me Sage Advice

Recently I received an email, one of those mass forwarded –spam from friends- you gotta read this- we all get almost everyday. Bear in mind that he’s retired and on Medicare like everyone over 65. The email included a link to a Youtube video. Senator Rogers of Minnesota was speaking in the Senate against the proposed health care reform bill. Ok. I gave it a listen. I smelled a rat becasue the title of the email said “See this before they remove it” – whoever “they” is- as if a Senate debate could possibly be censored and this was some piece of clandestine video smuggled out of the Senate. Senator Roger’s main point was 85% of Americans have insurance today and they’re happy with it. Only 15% don’t have insurance.

He goes on to say Uncle Sam wants to “punish” the 85% who have it to cover the 15% that don’t. He didn't elaborate what "punish" really meant either, other than "you'll pay more". Also notice how 15% sounds so much less significant than 45 million people. He goes on to say 10 million of those people don’t want insurance, as if that makes everything ok. I’m sure we’d all like to not have insurance on our cars, but we accept that mandate, and have for so long people don’t even equate the two.

The closest the Senator comes to offering an alternate is a broad statement, that we should “let” the insurance industry “innovate”, whatever that means… It’s the American basis for our free enterprise system that we’re founded on, and further more get the government out of our private lives. That always brings tears to the eyes of conservatives.

Well, I couldn’t let this spam mail go unanswered, so I sent a reply to my old friend explaining that I’m a Democrat and very much in favor of health care reform. I pointed out, quite factually, that all Republican Administrations have done nothing to address health reform, because they pretty much like the status quo. I brought up the fact that the Republicans don’t have an alternate plan that addresses the issues. Their plans are cheaper because the uninsured are still left uninsured. I also pointed out that 45,000 uninsured Americans die every year because they don’t receive the attention of doctors and their health deteriorates more than insured people. And finally, since he’s on Medicare, I pointed out that most people on Medicare are very happy with it, so the Government can’t be all that bad.

He replied to my email with a preamble that he doesn’t usually respond to these emails, but this time he couldn’t help himself. He told me nothing I said was true. He said the Republicans have a plan that costs 10% of the Democrat’s plan. And if I don’t believe him I should watch Glenn Beck on Fox News because that’s where he gets his facts and he can be trusted.

I replied one last time saying I don’t think we’re going to change each other’s views, but I hoped we would stay friends. He went back to Fox News and I turned on Rachel Maddow feeling quite depressed about the whole thing.