Healthcare for me but not for thee

[ksmith]

Courtesy of Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly

A newly-elected Republican congressman wants his healthcare, dammit. An excerpt:

Harris spent months condemning the idea of Americans being entitled to taxpayer-subsidized health care coverage. Now that the election's over, Harris suddenly feels entitled to taxpayer-subsidized health care coverage -- and wants it immediately. (For the record, Harris and his family will probably rely on COBRA to stay insured until his coverage kicks in. COBRA, of course, is another government program that the right opposed.)

That Harris apparently sought a public option for him and his family just makes the whole story that much more hilarious.

Just to clarify, I don't actually blame the far-right congressman-elect. He wants coverage for him and his family, and doesn't want to have to worry about a 28-day gap in which he, his wife, and his kids would have no protections if they get sick.

I do, however, blame the far-right congressman-elect for failing to realize that millions of American families want the same peace of mind he's seeking.

Harris wants to know "what he would do without 28 days of health care"? I don't know, Andy, what have tens of millions of Americans, including millions of children, done without access to quality health care for years? Why are you entitled to government-subsidized health care, but they're not? What will those families do after you repeal the Affordable Care Act? Wait for tort reform to magically cover everyone?

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

The king owns everything . . .

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I wondered at the reason for the one month delay, and may have found it thanks to a commenter over at Talking Points Memo:

What's even funnier is the reason for the one-month delay: Congress doesn't run its own health care, it contracts with a bunch of private providers through the Federal Employees' Healthcare program. Those providers impose the one-month delay by following the fundamental rule of the free market: if you can get away with it, do it.

Commenter rp10007, to be exact. Middle of the page.

UPDATE: it's been a while since I went through this, but someone on another list mentioned that 30-day waiting periods are standard when signing up for employer-provided insurance.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

The best answer I've seen to your question is that the conservative mind, of its nature, lacks empathy. If something affects the conservative directly, it becomes a matter of massive importance. Anybody else, or anybody else's family? Who cares? There's no extrapolation from me to thee.

This story is the perfect illustration of that theory. So are all the stories about the teabaggers on their Medicare-subsidized scooters, collecting their Social Security and their welfare. "I deserve it. Those other people don't." But you want those programs eliminated. "Not for me! I deserve it! Just for those other people! They're freeloaders! They're using up my money!"

My addition to the theory is that this mindset projects constantly. Whatever they're accusing "those other people" of doing, you can be sure they're doing, or would do, themselves.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

The best answer I've seen to your question is that the conservative mind, of its nature, lacks empathy. If something affects the conservative directly, it becomes a matter of massive importance. Anybody else, or anybody else's family? Who cares? There's no extrapolation from me to thee.

This, yes. I have seen this time and time again. For people who claim to support traditional values, they kind of miss the whole point of "love thy neighbor," and forget about the Golden Rule. :P

[mithriltabby]

I suspect it’s not so much a lack of empathy as a particular view of virtue— the “spare the rod, spoil the child” notion that people need to overcome adversity on their own, or they’ll become moral weaklings. Harris probably gets no cognitive dissonance from this because he feels like he got the job and should get the benefits from the job, but people without jobs need to go work hard and get them in order to get their own health care. And his belief that there are always jobs out there for anyone willing to work hard enough is probably in the “cornerstone of religious faith” category, and not subject to evidence-based argument.

I do think it’s a short-sighted perspective that neglects network effects and the economic notion of public goods: if the baseline for all citizens is that everyone is well-educated, well-fed, and healthy, the incremental cost for businesses to expand is much lower. And that’s a purely economic justification, without even getting into the morality of the issue...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Both my parents were on Social Security disability. Sometime during my high school years--I forget exactly when--we were on food stamps as we waited for my Dad to win his disability claim. During that time, my Mom worked three jobs. For a period of three years, she did not have a single day off. That stressful period helped break her health, and almost broke my folks' marriage. But government tit-sucking weaklings that they were, they got through it. I received social security dependent payments in college, and TSW that I am, I turned into a home-owning, freight-hauling, book-writing scientist person.

Sometimes, people need help. Bad luck, bad choices, poor health. Circumstances over which they might have had some control, perhaps, but do you damn them for their mistakes? Do you damn their families with them?

I don't understand this crop of conservatives. It's as if they *want* people to fail so that they have someone to feel superior to. Someone to point a finger at.

[mithriltabby]

I don’t know from direct experience, but if I were scripting one as a non-player character in a game, I would have them believe “voluntary private charity should take care of it, so the person donating voluntarily gets metaphysical credit for their virtue; if you don’t choose to give, it doesn’t count” and “if they’d just work harder, they could solve the problem”, along with a generous helping of “I do not question my own beliefs”. Not so much a matter of wanting people to fail, more seeing the misery of others as confirmation of their being worthy of the blessings of heaven.

[threeoutside.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought of when I read your post, too. Jay Lake says this often.

Thing is, I vividly remember a scene in the miniseries HOLOCAUST where a Jewish attorney who had *volunteered* to represent one of the worst butchers in the Nazi pantheon came back from a harrowingly cold interview with his client, and told his friend that now he had seen evil, and it was...the absence of empathy.

If that is true, what ARE these people who are bent on taking over this nation? And how can I possibly relocate to a different country right now please?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

You'd like to think that Harris would experience a flash of insight during this eminently teachable moment. "Wow, look how upset I am that I and my family may lack insurance for 28 days. What about all those fellow citizens who have lacked insurance for 28 days? 28 weeks? 28 months? How can I help solve this problem? Of course I need to pursue free market solutions, but if I need to compromise to some small extent with those commies across the aisle, I will do so in order that my fellow citizens--"

And at this point, the Faux News Thought Police intervened and he was drummed out of the Republican Party.