So Where are we today in the Debate?

Before I move on to the subject of Employer Sponsored Insurance or ESI, which cover a majority of citizens I wanted to put together an update on the state of the Health Care Debate.

A number of issues have become clearer over the last few months. On the one hand, the nature of the process initiated by President Obama has been a source of confusion. What I mean is that given the President Obama has chosen the path of letting Congress design the solution- within certain parameters- with some flexibility built in, the fact that there have been several bills in the various committees in the senate and the house of representatives- all works in progress, have created ample room for confusion.

Secondly, the Republicans have taken on the mantle of the protectors of the free-market system. Under this guise they have ladled up familiar free-market oriented guidelines rather than any meaty and detailed prescription for how the problem may be solved. They have also calculated quite shrewdly that causing the Democrats to lose this initiative will be extremely costly for President Obama and the Democrats. All that the so-called Republican Health Care plan contains are the familiar free-market nostrums.

Thirdly, the Democrats have- as always, become victims of their fragmented special interests. So for example, it is not entirely clear whether the objections of the "Blue Dog" Democrats are genuine- which would have implied that they would have come up with serious alternative solutions that would solve the problems, or whether the source of the objections are caused by their alignment with the insurance industry (Center for Responsible Politics: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/08/health-insurers-continue-to-wo.html.)

Lastly and I think most importantly the debate has aroused the familiar tension in American politics- that between a smaller government that serves few non-egalitarian vested interests and a larger government that serves widespread vested interests. This tension has been a deeply ingrained peculiarity of the American political landscape from the founding of the Republic. It has reared its head during any debate where initiatives impacting a larger population have been at play. In more recent history this debate has been displayed during the Great Depression, then again during the formation of the Great Society in the 60's. Egalitarianism has always been a much weaker strain in American politics.

So, why the above description? It stems from the fact that I started this blog with the thought that it was the lack of information about the state of Health Care in the US that was causing the confusion. The thought that information would help clarify the terms of the debate. What has rapidly become obvious is that it is not a lack of information but the trumping by ideology of information that is at the nub of the debate. In fact, from the furious and acrimonious townhalls to the message flowing from Fox television network and from there to the unwillingness of Republicans to be tethered to the facts of the debate, it is clear that information and facts are not really the issue. What has joined the battle are two conflicting visions of America as a country.