"We've got a problem, but the Democrats are going to take over X and make things worse."
The essence is really quite simple: regulation of insurers, so that they can’t cherry-pick only the healthy, and subsidies, so that all Americans can afford insurance.
...
That’s it. Any commentator who whines that he just doesn’t understand it is basically saying that he doesn’t want to understand it.
Everyone in the place was complaining about the insurance companies and how broken the system was. But they were also convinced that the Democrats are trying to pass socialized medicine. When I asked what they thought that meant, they said, "government takeover of health care." And they were seriously worried about how that was going to affect them.
I don't know where these people are getting this. They aren't political, they don't listen to talk radio or read blogs. This is just what's out in the ether, what people are saying in casual conversation.
The ear worm is "we've got a problem, but the Democrats are going to take over health care and make things worse." It's not entirely surprising, but it's depressing nonetheless.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/wonk-speech-by-digby-we-spend-lot-of.html