While some conservatives claim that Obama wants to kill your granny I hesitate to accept that as Obamas sole reason for pushing the health care reform.
From the private insurers point of view it makes perfect sense to oppose the reform ... if they didn't, they'd face an immense decline in profits if either the government option provides better care or if regulations bar insurers from avoiding costs by their current methods.
But it's a bit too simplicistic to merely claim that one party acts out of altruism (or a loathing of old ladies) and the other out of greed.
So, what do you think are the driving motives in this dispute ?
(Note that I don't ask you what you think is the better solution.)
Pro (Motives of the health care reform advocates):
- The Believe that health care is a right, not a privilege (file under altruism).
- Desire for more government control.
- An excuse to raise taxes (no one wants to pay more taxes without a good reason).
- Desperation (they can't get private insurance and hope for the public option).
Con (Motives of the health care reform opponents):
- Greed / seeking profits (Insurance companies will lose money if forced to provide care to sick)
- Selfishness ("Why should I pay for your surgery?").
- Government shouldn't do health care because they are incompetent ().
- Poor people should die sooner than later.
- It is not clear how the reform can be financed.
- A deal with drug companies prohibiting the government to negotiate drug prices can't lower costs.
Two key issues that make the health care reform necessary in the eyes of the proponents are quailty and cost.
Quality has been discussed to death and information (and misinformation) is freely available.
Cost is harder to estimate - one simply can't understand what estimated costs of trillions of dollars over decades means for your paycheck. So I started a different thread where I want to compare the personal average cost of health care in different countries.
For example: German average gross income is about €2,500. After deductions (including health insurance) a single person without kids gets to keep about €1,500.
And what can germans do with that money in germany? Why, buy beer, of course. €1,500 get you 1,200 litre of high quality Pilsener beer - twice as much if you don't care about quality and go for the cheap labels.
Health care costs: €185 per month (currently $264)
Cheers!