Republicans and Health Care Reform

"Afflicting the Afflicted" is what Paul Krugman calls his article. In this opinion on Thursdays health care summit he discuss things said by the Republicans in reference to the health care reform debate. His intended audience seems to be anyone who has an interest in the health care reform, although his article seems to also be sided more to Democrats. Krugman's claim is that the Republicans "didn't bother making a case that could withstand even minimal fact-checking." He argument leads you to believe that he feels that the Republicans didn't make a good enough case on where they stand, especially with the amount of time, research, and emphasis put into the health care reform. While Krugman's article is definitely one sided, he does have great evidence to support his claim. When he discusses the republican representatives comments on premiums going up he does mention that the Democrats say that "average payments for insurance would go up". Krugman does acknowledge that this is something the Democrats did say would happen, but that the Republicans didn't speak on the Democrats entire statement and notes that rise would be due to"better coverage" and the "federal aide" would help to offset this cost. He also discusses the use of reconciliation and how is was stated by the Republicans that it has "never been used for something like this" Krugman points out that it has in fact been used twice before in health care reform. While I do think he is accurate here, I don't agree with it being used in such an over hall of the health care system and I think that is more the point that the Republicans are trying to make. I do however agree with his comments about the Republicans inability to adequately discuss the issue of pre-existing medical conditions. I also agree that it seems very wrong to deny someone health care coverage because of the many reasons that we currently do and feel that the Democrats putting an end to this is a great thing. I, like Krugman wonder why the Republicans didn't give an answer for this issue. Overall Krugman makes a good argument for his claim, he backs it up with direct comments from the Republicans and discusses their lack of evidence. It is his last comment at the end that leaves me feeling like it is more a one sided push for the Democrats and their plan. He comment of "But Democrats can have the last laugh. All they have to do — and they have the power to do it — is finish the job, and enact health reform", leaves me thinking he himself must be a Democrat as well, which is where he must get his logic from, and also that he has forgotten that it isn't just up to the Democrats. This issue affects the entire U.S. and it is not something that they can create by just finishing the job, its going to take a lot more work than that. Before reading that statement I thought that his article was pretty good, he even had me siding with him. He last comment kind of soured me though and makes me wonder that even though he is very skilled in economics knowledge and has written many books and received many awards if he wasn't just siding with the Democrats. I think that with him being such a great writer he may have been able to write just as good of an argument for the Republicans.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/opinion/26krugman.html