Why we'll never get health care reform in the USA

Right now, people are somewhat talking about health care in the United States. I mean, they're talking about it, even though they're probably not going to do anything about it. Really. In case you haven't figured it out, that's how politics works in the United States. We talk about things. We get outraged at things. And then we realize how hard it is to change the thing we're outraged about. So then we get indignant. And then we hear about something ELSE that gets us talking, outraged and then indignant, subsequently forgetting about the thing that we were first talking about. In case people don't realize it, and they do, but they just don't want to talk about it, we talked about, were outraged and then indignant about health care several times before we forgot about it and moved onto other things, like wars overseas, genocide in Somalia, anger about puppies being slaughtered and then outrage at how the Chinese may have cheated in the Olympics. And then we forgot all about all of these things and then started talking about John and Kate (whoever they are) and who might win American Idol this time around.

Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political hack, has an article about how we're outraged but no one is covering it. Well, they are covering it, but the problem is not involved in the coverage, but how it requires television to cover it, and honestly, talking about health care is boring to news people on television. If there's no fire to show pictures of, it turns into a bunch of talking heads complaining, and while that might get people going for a few hours on Fox News, the rest of the country turns that sort of thing off. While Fox News may like to talk about their great news ratings, even the BEST news ratings pales in comparison to the WB's worst prime time programming (okay, think they're calling themselves the CW now...hard to keep up with a TV station that has no one watching it).

So is this going to be a problem for health care? Of course it is. No one is covering it because it's not a great television story. If it's not a great television story, they can't guarantee news ratings. And if that's the case, don't expect to hear much about now. Now if some senator had an affair with a porn star, THAT'S news. But have that same senator talk about some common person in New Jersey who can't afford to have health care, and the rest of the country starts yawning before turning to some world wresting smackdown with big buff guys yelling at each other before they go to a commercial that sells us products to enhance our genitalia or grow back the missing hair on our scalp.

America is in dire need of health care reform. And not some fix it that doesn't fix anything but moves some money from insurance companies to congress members' pockets. The system has been broke for a very long time, and as long as we have to rely on the current form of media coverage, it's going to continue to break even further. The tough choices to be made won't be made because the people who need to make those choices have more to gain by doing nothing (they actually get reelected for doing nothing) than doing something (the other guys will knock them out of office if ANY chance is taken because the spin is always easier than trying to explain complex economics to the general voting public).

So, don't expect any solutions any time soon. Expect lots of bluster and lots of talking about the issues by people who won't do anything to change anything. Expect some legislation that pretends to do something big and may even be named THE HEALTH CARE SOLUTION but actually does nothing. Unfortunately, we here in the United States are not very good at reading the fine print. We're not very good at reading the actual print either. We're just good at believing we're making a difference by talking about and complaining about things.

Like I just did. Expect the solution to be as solvent as my article. It feels good to say it, but it still won't get us anywhere. But then, I'm not an elected leader. I'm just some kid with a computer.

Stumble It!