Everywhere I look, American conservative critics of Obamacare are using the word "rationing" as their scare word of choice.
"Rationing" sounds perfect -- if you're a wonk.
But while "rationing" is an o.k. word, it isn't the best choice. Why?
Because Americans literally don't know what rationing is.
World War II is a distant memory -- or just a bunch of movies with guys in drab uniforms smoking and stuff. Domestic rationing of things like rubber and silk doesn't even get mentioned much in those movies, let alone come up in conversations between grandpa and grandkids about "when I was your age..."
For the last 50+ years, Americans have been able to get their hands on pretty much whatever they want, whether they need it or not. They just pull out their credit cards and take it home.
So "rationing" is a word that goes in one ear and out the other.
There's something unpleasant that most Americans HAVE experienced, however. Something they absolutely positively hate, because it goes against their self-image, and grates on their pride.
That something is:
Waiting in line.
Americans HATE waiting in line.
Waiting in line makes Americans feel like docile sheep heading to the slaughter, under the thumb of some looming, invisible, unelected (and probably illegitimate) authority doling out petty favors like the Wizard of Oz -- if you're lucky.
And government health care is ALL about...
Waiting in line.
Even if you aren't literally waiting in line in the emergency ward (which you'll be doing -- for four, six, nine hours a shot), under a government health care system you are always on a list for treatment.
And a waiting list is just another kind of line.
Americans don't like lists and lines.
They've experienced them, very reluctantly and not without considerable bitching -- at the DMV, in traffic jams, in elementary school, in the 1970s, lining up bumper to bumper to get a meager gallon of gas (if they were lucky) -- and they mercilessly mock idiots who willingly arrange themselves into said lines, such as those dorks who camp out three days to get into the new Star Wars.
What did Americans always point to when they criticized the Soviet Union? The long lines for the most basic foodstuffs.
The very best type of American (admittedly they are a dying breed -- just look at Katrina...) will NOT put up with lines for long.
Every American believes he is the most important person in the world, even if he is a trailer trash.
He believes that he deserves to bypass the lineup and get ushered into the club; that Disneyland really would be the happiest place on earth if they could just do something about those dumb long lineups. He believes that lineups are for losers and suckers and sheep.
In Canada, when we dare talk about how bad our health care system is, we never talk about rationing because, well, we don't remember "rationing" either.
(Yes, the Canadian "health" "care" system "works" on the very principle of rationing -- but we don't call it that, because we can't bring ourselves to admit we've constructed a system that only "works" if sick people are denied expensive treatment for long enough that they actually, well, die first before we have to "waste" it on 'em.)
Which is all true, but too hard to face.
So we use phrases like "wait times" and "waiting lists," instead. Because we've all experienced these things, and it allows us to complain about the symptoms (the long lines) rather than the cause (the system itself).
"Rationing" is supposed to evoke the horror of utilitarianism, but frankly, millions of ordinary Americans are already de facto utilitarians and don't see that as a bad thing. As long as they aren't the ones experiencing the utilitarianism. Idiots who go mountain climbing and get stranded and use up tens of thousands of dollars from state coffers to get rescued should've been left on the mountain to die -- unless those mountain climbers just happen to be members of your family, and then... well, that's different...
That's where the "waiting list" and "line up" trope comes in. People can't imagine they'd ever be denied precious care by some bureaucrat who wishes they'd just die first. But they can more easily picture themselves stranded on a stretcher in an emergency room for two days -- and needless to say, they don't care much for that prospect.
My free advice to you is:
Stop talking about "rationing" and start talking about "waiting in line."
The latter phrase is more concrete, less abstract, less wonky.
Conservatives are supposed to be more attuned to the dismal realities of "human nature." So use your superior understanding of human nature and use words that will win.
"Waiting lists." "Waiting in line." "Line ups."
Try this on your friends and co-workers and see what happens. I promise you: this will work.
Comments
This lady sounded foolish then, but she was a prophet.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI
We already have a government health insurance plan - Medicare! It seems to work well enough. I don't see why you'd have to wait or have more rationing just because the government is underwriting the health insurance. The insurance companies are already trying to avoid paying your benefits, it's time to try something different.
"Wait lists" ought to do it.
Waiting a week or two for elective surgery is one thing. Three months for a by-pass is quite another.
Why don't you leave Canada Kathy?
How about, "Sorry we're closed till further notice?"
or,
This hospital is government property, trespassers wil be shot on sight.
Or for the real emergency: please take a seat and fill out these 4,235 forms and then get into line "J" to get them approved for getting into line "P" (Tues and Fri only)
"tyrannogenius"
Obviously you haven't figured it out yet. You can always choose a competitive ins. Co.
There is no competition to government.
Reasonable people look before they leap!
Sea Salt,
Can't speak for Kathy, but as a general thing, if America is going to be turned into Canada, what would be the point?
Any market based system involves rationing because goods are rationed according to income or ability to pay. Since most people cannot afford to pay they will protect themselves through insurance. The insurance company bureaucrats will then ration health care. The advantage of a single payer government insurance system is that it is non-profit and involves far less in the way of administrative costs.
There is still rationing but it is on the basis of need rather than income. Of course the well off can still jump queues and go to seek care in the U.S. or elsewhere should they wish.
"The worst 9 words you will ever hear are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan
Americans should know that there has NEVER been a comprehensive third party efficiency audit of the Canadian health system which supplies qualitative survival and cure rate data with which to compare that system with other jurisdictions. Some credible critics of the Canadian single tier health system speculate the preventable mortality rates in Canada surpass that of some 3rd world nations. Other critics have labeled socialist health systems a form of involuntary euthenasia because, if you're over 65, the socialist rationed systems only guarantees palliative care and allocate scarce high survival treatments to younger age groups.
Lastly, and most importantly, never forget that under socialist health systems it is a politician who will decide if you get curative care or palliative care. Essentially deciding who survives and who doesn't. Do you want your survival determined by some socialist technocrat who thinks resources are scarce because there are too many people?
PS: If you don't plan on a lengthy healthy retired life after age 65 go with the socialist systems.
The huge fear tatics about "socialised" medication is getting ridiculous and people hear just what they want to hear. I am a senior citizen on medicare. I guess that too is called socialised? I pick my doctor, my doctor makes my health decisions and the government pays the doctor. Wow. How awful is that? People need to calm down and get educated instead of only hearing what they want to hear and making healthcare such a fear mongering issue.
The peolple waiting in line are the Republicans and blue dogs with their hands out waiting for their big cash payoffs from private health insurance companies. The outcry against a public option is fear mongering by the insurance companies that don't want any reform so they can keep denying coverage, charging whatever they want and sticking it to the people. What do you have against a little competition? It is called a public OPTION!!!
Very smart idea. Americans, please take note...
But... people ALREADY wait in line, at the ER, at their primary care physician's office, the dentist.
Having a pleasant little office with comfy chairs and copies of GQ and Christian Science Monitor handy doesn't make it any less of a line.
I know morbidly obese patients who are on a regimen of perhaps a dozen prescription meds. The HMOs are happy to *maintain* these prescriptions and *maintain* the revenue stream from these meds, but what about actively funding a procedure which might eliminate the patient's need for the meds in the first place?
Oh no, that wouldn't be compatible with private insurance companies' happy relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.
Government sends police and EMTs when necessary with one of many goals of preserving and saving lives. I have more faith in government funding organ transplant, medications, or other life-saving measures than a private company motivated purely by the bottom line.
Robert Moon is spamming The Activity Pit again: twi.cc/lAlq
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