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The Argument No One is Making

I am not a politico. My experience in political strategy consists mostly of having seen every episode of The West Wing twice. That said, I've been crafting arguments for most of my life, and it seems to me there is an argument that could win the health care debate that no one is making. I don't know if no one has thought of it or if it's deficient in some way I haven't yet realized. We can debate this in the comments. In the meantime, I can't get it off my mind, and this is pretty much my only public forum. Forgive me for abusing it.

The fundamental problem with health care reform is that people fear the unknown. Change means uncertainty, and one thing people don't want to feel less than certain about is their health. People prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains, and they'll cling to even a flawed system when faced with the uncertainty of living without it.

It's extremely easy to feed this fear. Despite the patent absurdity of the idea that a system of forced Euthanasia could survive in a free democratic society, the Obama administration has been forced to spend a significant amount of time and resources defending against this idea of "death panels." Their strategy, so far, has been to refute the misinformation, but this will never work. If a lie so brazen and simple could dominate the debate for three weeks, the Right should have no trouble coming up with another once this has been dispelled. These lies work because people are confused and scared.

It's time President Obama and his team put forward an argument that acknowledges this fear. People need to hear that what they fear is not true, but that's only part of it. They also need a defense against all the other uncertainties that haven't yet occurred to them. They need a failsafe. Luckily, one is provided in the Constitution. It's time the Obama administration began to emphasize the one element of certainty in government-managed health care that is totally absent from the private system: democracy.

Let's start with Death Panels. Obviously, there are not going to be death panels. This is not obvious because I have read the bill; it is obvious because if there were government-run panels that began to kill old people against their wishes, every member of congress would lose his job. Problems that big simply cannot survive democracy. Obama should use this defense writ large:

"Look, I promise you that the finest minds in Washington have been over every detail of this plan, and we're convinced it's going to work much better than the current system. That said, I know you still have concerns. Some of them might even be legitimate. But I promise you, if there's something you hate about the public option, and enough people agree with you, it will go away. That's because you have the power to elect us every two, four, or six years, and that means we work for you. Insurance companies, on the other hand, do not. If they deny you coverage because you're too sick to afford, as happens to X number of Americans every year, you don't get to fire them. If they raise their rates to the point that the middle class can no longer afford to get sick, as they've done in 10-20% increments every year for the last five, you don't get to vote on how wrong you think that is.

Giving the government a role in health care means YOU have a role in health care. So how you feel about this issue really comes down to this: do you want to work for your health insurance, or do you want your health insurance to work for you?"

Can somebody get this to Josh Lyman?

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on August 25, 2009 (boomark / email).