American healthcare reform and Autoimmunity

The on-going outrage of American public (mostly Republicans) against the recent healthcare reform is fascinating to me. It reminds me of a  medical condition called Autoimmunity where the body attacks and destroys itself from within.

The very same middle-class Americans who are in the most dire need for this reform, (one study shows 45,000 Americans die every year partly due to lack of health insurance), have been brainwashed into thinking that this is somehow "bad" for them. I saw on a doctor friend's facebook status a while ago that a lady patient of hers who had gone bankrupt for paying for her healthcare after losing her insurance was STILL against the healthcare reform!  The reform which makes a point to help people in exactly the situation like hers.

Classic three "arguments" that are put against the reform:

1) It'll put a beaurocrat between me and my doctor!

There is already a beaurocrat between you and the doctor- your private insurance company.  The only difference would be, with the reform, you would have at least some level of influence since government, at the end of the day, is accountable to the public.  Privately owned companies are only accountable to the Wall Street.

2) It'll turn us into a Socialist country!

From your complete judicial system, to law and enforcement, to military - they are already "socialized" institutions.   You wouldn't even dream (I hope) about putting these institutions that are in-charge of your physical-care, in the hands of private companies. But somehow, you think the same private companies should be the only in-charge of your health-care??

3) It'll drive private insurance companies out of business in the long run!

And I should care, because?  Taking more from people + giving back less, while keeping the difference as profit is a fine business model for car/home insurance companies, but not when comes to human life.  It is sacred, unless you disagree?  So if we consider human life to be a lot more than a mere commodity like a car/house etc., then how could we treat them all the same?

As history has shown, current private health insurance for-profit business model is neither economical nor moral, as Wendell Potter, former Vice President of Corporate Communications for the CIGNA corporation, discusses. Private health insurance deserves to go out of business ASAP.  This is not to be confused with the pharmaceutical companies, whose sole incentive to R&D is profit, which make sense.  They are creating tangible products to save life, rather than just bartering it.

Healthcare, is a right, especially in a civilized society, just as justice and physical security is.  It's not a privilege or a business.  So if there is anything outrageous about the healthcare reform, it's that it's taken so long for Americans to take it seriously.

Given how weak the anti-reform 'arguments' are, it shows no matter how technologically advanced or well-educated we become, propaganda will remain a force to reckon with.