If Frank Luntz’s Memo Were A Bill
If Frank Luntz’s Memo Were A Bill
In an effort to have something to talk about over the Memorial Day recess, so-called Republican party moderates Reps. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA) have unveiled legislation protecting Americans from the deficiencies of foreign health care systems:
By enacting the Medical Rights Act, Congress will ensure Americans keep the choice, quality and access currently denied citizens of the U.K. and Canada (Canadian law actually bans patients from paying for care themselves, even if denied care).
This is the consequence of taking Frank Luntz’s memo too seriously. Luntz uses straw-man arguments against British and Canadian health care to attack the Democrats’ proposal and Kirk and Dent are targeting their legislation against a non-existent proposal. Consider some of this language:
- In addition, this section prevents the federal government from regulating the hiring practices of organizations that provide health care, such as hospitals, clinics, and the like.
- This section prohibits the federal government from regulating privately supported medicine, legally protecting the doctor-patient relationship against federal controls or rationing for care not paid for by the federal government.
- This section also protects the rights of patients to buy health insurance, or make any other arrangements to pay for their own health care.
Luntz writes that “it’s not enough to just say what you’re against. You have to tell them what you’re for.” If your only goal is to stay ‘on message’ and to convince your constituents that you are in fact an advocate of (or against) something (even if that something isn’t real), then this is what you produce. Of course, if your constituents are literate they’ll just laugh at you.
10 Responses to “If Frank Luntz’s Memo Were A Bill”
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Notice that this nonsense will “protect” your “right” to pay twice as much for crappy health insurance than the Canadians pay for actual health CARE? This is just another laughable republican attempt to rob you for the benefit of the insurance companies that shouldn’t be involved in health care AT ALL.
I’ll tell you what: Before this or any other “pay through the nose” bill even gets discussed, let’s take away congress’s health care. THAT will give them an idea of what WE are going through, when they have to PAY for THEIR health care. Let THEM pay for insurance that pays for NOTHING, let THEM pay for insurance that doesn’t cover anything, and let THEM pay for NO return. That is the ONLY way ANYTHING is going to change.
My RIGHT to pay for insurance? That is a “right” I would rather not have protected, thank you. In fact, I would really rather have the system that congress themselves have. It actually works, and WE should have it. LONG before congress should.
May 21st, 2009 at 7:52 pmBy enacting the Insurance industry Rights Act, Congress will ensure Americans are kept from the choice, quality and access currently provided citizens of the U.K. and Canada (Canada’s top court has struck down Quebec’s bans on private health care insurance). There, fixed.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:19 pmMay 21st, 2009 at 9:22 pm
We Americans are often told to fear a “socialized” medical system. In fact, we already live by a socialized medical system run by private insurance industries which calculate rules to retain insurance profits and this results in the least efficient care for the patient.
Insurance companies are middlemen that limit my heath care choices. Insurance companies are a massively wasteful, bureaucratic system of socialism for a profit.
Doctors control costs according to insurance company rules and contracts, or the insurance claim will be denied. Insurance companies regulate the doctor-patient relationship. Insurance companies ration health-care. The doctors’ real customer are insurance companies, not the patient.
I think we have nothing to lose by providing a government sponsored universal health-care option in our reform, if it is done right. Insurance companies do not want an optional government program to compete with them, or it would expose how inefficient and restrictive the insurance companies are.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:32 pmI would hope that any healthcare legislation or Patient Bill of Rights would explicitly include the freedom of individuals to seek and obtain at their own expense if possible or necessary the most appropriate care they feel is necessary for their condition. For example, if I want to continue paying out of my own pocket for my chiropractor rather than line up appointments with an orthopedic surgeon, I should have that right without government interference.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:37 amfunny thing, both the democrats and the republicans seem to be afraid of canadian and british health care.
luntz is actually very smart on what matters to americans and how to talk about it [doctor-patient relationship, delayed care is denied care, bureaucrats making health decisions, etc].
unfortunately, by keeping the insurance companies as the central part of their ‘reform’ the democrats are going to bring us more of the same interference in doctor-patient relationships, delayed [and outright denied] care, health care decisions made by bureaucrats, etc.
medicare beneficiaries are more satisfied with their coverage, have better access to health care, and have fewer problems with medical bills than do people covered by private insurance. expanding [and improving] medicare to cover all of us would not only save us money, it would address people’s fears. expanding the current private insurance system is going to cost us more money, and anybody in their right mind should be afraid of the democrats.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:18 amWell, I have bad news for you, sport. The one guy who’s protecting americans from health care is Barack H. Obama, dude.
the man who promised; “Change YOU CAN BELIEVE IN” is now delivering; “TREASON YOU CAN WATCH YOUR NATION DISINTEGRATE IN” with his protection of torturers and mass murderers, and his; “NOPE” on single payer medicine for all of us.
while you want to indict the GOP slime, go ahead, but remember, be fair, and don’t pin this strictly on the republicans, the BLUE DOGS are doing it to us too!
I call them DINOCRATS, as in Democrat In Name Only ‘vichy’ Dems who are constantly screwing the american people just like the GOP, and who, in fact, should join the g.d. GOP party and get the F**k out of the Democratic party once and for all.
sorry about the profanity, but apologists on the alleged progressive side fail to remember that some of us have working brains out here and we can see things clearly without an interpreter from the Obama kool-aid “I need an excuse for INACTION” party.
we’re done with the DINO’s, my friend. really over them!
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:30 amConservatives are really creepy people.
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:30 amThe people in this country with half a brain have been laughing at these idiots trying to make us buy their garbage for years now. I think more & more people are seeing the republican tricksters for what they really are.
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:02 amContrary to what the American politicians would have the general public believe, Canadian Health does provide for all and in , RICH and POOR.
May 24th, 2009 at 10:14 pmMy daughter suffers from a chronic disease and has and will always recieve top notch care, all with no cost to my family.
Wait times can be longer than going private, but people are not just”turned away”. All ill’s are taken by priority. And yes we do have the option of going to private care if one feels wait times are to long.
Canadians love our neighbours to the south, there is very little diffence between the two countries, but we all get a laugh at how serious your politicians (Republicans) take them selves. Just say no to the fear mongers and steady stream of lies that come out of there mouth’s.