The "real" Healthcare Issues

There are two problems with healthcare.  The problem "voters" want fixed is rising premiums, rising costs, etc.  The fact is that most of them have insurance, and every year it costs them more than the year before.


The problem progressives want to fix is that 47 million people don't have insurance.  Of course, this is not an entirely different problem -- assuming that health insurance is something people want, then it stands to reason that we got costs under control people would actually buy their own insurance.

In other words, if you solve the problem "voters" want solved, then the problem progressives want to solve actually becomes smaller.

This presents its own problem, since solving the 47 million problem is just an excuse for universal healthcare.  Progressives don't want any particular problem solved, they want a specific solution.  Any solution that threatens to increase coverage (by lowering prices, for example) reduces the 47 million, and along with them, the "need" for universal care.

I know people who honestly believe that progressives actually want high unemployment because it increases the number of uninsured.  I don't know if that's true.  But suddenly it doesn't seem so improbable that progressives rely on expensive healthcare dysfunction to make their costly utopian liberal healthcare reform seem "revenue neutral."