Krugman: Insurance and Freedom

[ProSense]

Insurance and Freedom

By PAUL KRUGMAN

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It goes without saying that Republicans oppose any expansion of programs that help the less fortunate — along with tax cuts for the wealthy, such opposition is pretty much what defines modern conservatism. But they seem to be having more trouble than in the past defending their opposition without simply coming across as big meanies.

Conservatives love, for example, to quote from a stirring speech Reagan gave in 1961, in which he warned of a grim future unless patriots took a stand. (Liz Cheney used it in a Wall Street Journal op-ed article just a few days ago.) “If you and I don’t do this,” Reagan declared, “then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”...conservatives make very similar arguments against Obamacare. For example, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has called it the “greatest assault on freedom in our lifetime.” And this kind of rhetoric matters, because when it comes to the main obstacle now remaining to more or less universal health coverage — the reluctance of Republican governors to allow the Medicaid expansion that is a key part of reform — it’s pretty much all the right has.

As I’ve already suggested, the old trick of blaming the needy for their need doesn’t seem to play the way it used to, and especially not on health care: perhaps because the experience of losing insurance is so common, Medicaid enjoys remarkably strong public support. And now that health reform is the law of the land, the economic and fiscal case for individual states to accept Medicaid expansion is overwhelming. That’s why business interests strongly support expansion just about everywhere — even in Texas. But such practical concerns can be set aside if you can successfully argue that insurance is slavery...46 years have passed since Medicare went into effect; as far as most of us can tell, freedom hasn’t died on either side of the Atlantic.

In fact, the real, lived experience of Obamacare is likely to be one of significantly increased individual freedom. For all our talk of being the land of liberty, those holding one of the dwindling number of jobs that carry decent health benefits often feel anything but free, knowing that if they leave or lose their job, for whatever reason, they may not be able to regain the coverage they need. Over time, as people come to realize that affordable coverage is now guaranteed, it will have a powerful liberating effect.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/opinion/krugman-insurance-and-freedom.html

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[spanone]

2. k&r...

[closeupready]

3. Very liberating indeed. People can start thinking re: entrepreneurship again.

K&R

[Nay]

4. I hope that's true, but I have grave doubts. My son has run his own home business for 4 years

now. Obviously, he and his family have no insurance because premiums were so high. Virginia is just starting to get its insurance offerings straight, and, looking at the premiums, the stuff that is being offered is just as expensive and bad as anything he looked at before Obamacare. It's likely they won't qualify for aid, and what's left is unaffordable. He will simply pay the penalty amount, and they still have no insurance. I don't see anything changing for him.

[ProSense]

5. It will be. n/t