Comments on: The health care reform generation gap

By: Michael Roston - Newsbroke – Dear Sarah Silverman: Can we get a ‘Great Schlep’ for health care? - True/Slant

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:25:14 +0000

[...] we are a year later – Obama is President, and we’re fighting over health care reform. Poll after poll shows there is a generational divide over the President’s health care debate, with [...]

By: jasong

jasong — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:43:57 +0000

It goes beyond misinformation. Liberals and progressives always seem to think, "If they were only better informed..." No, I think it's much deeper than that. Our culture was infected with the virus known as "market populism" during the '80s and (especially) '90s, as chronicled in Thomas Frank's "One Market Under God" (excerpted here): The notion that "government" is not the instrument of the people, but is the enemy of the people, and that markets are the truly democratic means of addressing social needs, "that in addition to being mediums of exchange, markets are mediums of consent." Look at the results of this Pew Survey, showing that age is directly related to distrust of government to solve problems: two-thirds of those in their 20s say gov't should do more, while the majority of those over 45 say gov't should do less. Market populists can't seem to see the irony in their hostility towards a government which may be, say, 60-80% corrupted by corporate interests, while they place their faith in a market system composed of 100% corporate interests (especially in the absence of the other countervailing force, labor unions). These ideologues reject the notion that "having created the conditions that make markets possible, democracy must also do all the things that markets undo or cannot do" (Benjamin Barber). So even if older folks are more likely to be receiving government-provided or -subsidized health care, their anti-government ideology overwhelms any rational analysis based on facts. As Frank says, "in ideology all one requires is principle." And who's more self-enamored of their principles, more deeply invested in their faith, than Americans?

By: lann

lann — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:25:38 +0000

Well said.

By: Rick Ungar

Rick Ungar — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:14:36 +0000

You’re on the right track. The senior concern (actually over 65 as the people between 50-65 are a whole different kettle of fish) is that medicare payments will be reduced to the point where their doctor may no longer take it. There is actually some basis in fact for this. Last year, 28% of Medicare recipients had difficulty finding a physician who accepted Medicare. So, this is the key basis upon which seniors are acting. Beyond that – yeah, they just are easily freaked out when change is on the horizon.

Information exchange is at the heart of the problem. The opponents of reform have done a much better job scaring the crap out of people than those in support have done defending. It’s time for those in support to start scaring the crap out of people with the message that failure to reform will mean a more difficult life in the future.

By: lann

lann — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:48:30 +0000

Misinformation. Seniors are easily frightened by propaganda put out by the opposition (republican, conservatives, health insurers, pharmaceutical companies, etc.) to the O’Bama plan. For example, many of them believe that page 425 contains a requirement that they be tested every five years – actually, on page 425 of the plan is a provision that requires seniors to update every five years their status regarding whether they want to be sustained on life sustaining equipment etc sort of like giving seniors an opportunity to make a living will, which all should have but most probably don’t.