Here come the demagogues

Published 6:04 pm Friday, July 31, 2009

Polls show anxiety rising over health-care reform, and the demagogues are responding by revving up their spin machines. With members of Congress heading home for the August recess, expect a virtual guerrilla war of words designed not to inform, but to scare Americans into opposing change.

It started in earnest last week, with various talking heads and bloggers spreading the shameful lie that one health-care bill in the House would require Americans, once they reach age 65, to undergo “end of life” counseling, raising the sci-fi-like specter of a system that gets the sick and weak out of the way, leaving more resources for the rest. One such headline warned, “Obama Targets Boomers for Extermination.”

Less imaginative but still dire warnings about a “government takeover” of the health-care system, one that rations care and puts bureaucrats between you and your doctor, are all over the airwaves, and they’ll get louder as lawmakers spend the next month listening to the concerns of voters at home.

Here’s our prescription: Everyone should take a deep breath, count to 10, and calm down. The legislative process is a long way from completion, and its nature makes sudden, dramatic change nearly impossible. The founders wrote a constitution that favors incrementalism over than transformational change.

While fundamental changes are needed — now — to a health care system that has seen costs triple in less than 20 years, that fails to provide cost-effective care to tens of millions, and that penalizes efficient care by underpaying those who provide it, ominous predictions that “socialized health care” will emerge from Congress are just silly. They’re designed to scare people, thereby turning them against ideas they would otherwise support.

There’s a reason why so much attention has been glued to the three Democrats and three Republicans negotiating the details of the Senate Finance Committee’s reform bill: It’s likely to most closely resemble what Congress will vote on in the end. If this group of six can reach consensus on the most important elements of reform — covering nearly all Americans, paying for it, and bending the cost curve downward — they could give reform the momentum it needs to reach the finish line before the end of the year.

But many, many details remain to be worked out before that happens. You’ll be hearing a lot about them in the coming weeks. As you do, we suggest keeping this in mind: If something sounds too ridiculous to be true, there’s probably a reason.