Despair That Health Care Reform Will Ever Happen

TW: This re-cap by Time's Tumulty of a Republican consultant Frank Luntz' take on how to oppose Obama's health care reform initiative frames why Americans may understand partially at least that our system is broken and getting worse, but are absolutely not prepared to make the tough decisions to fix it.

Luntz realizes folks theoretically would like reform but then raises all of the standard objections with no solutions, suggesting a path that would result in retaining the status quo whereby Americans consume more and more health care at higher and higher prices. Luntz' strategy hits the usual hot buttons (the same ones that killed the 1994 Clinton effort) and could be summarized as:

"keep government out, have doctors and patients make all care decisions, prevent any rationing"

The above sounds great until you realize this does nothing to accomplish change or reform from the current system. Health care providers (in avoiding risk and pursuit of revenue) and patients (in avoiding any risk) will consume infinite health care. Luntz frames what likely could blunt the Democratic reform efforts. But where are his solutions? At some point our societal aversion to health care risk and the disconnect between users and payers must be addressed.

From Time:
"Politico's Mike Allen has this...look at the talking points that pollster/wordsmith Frank Luntz has crafted for the House Republicans, as they consider how to approach health care reform. Luntz warns them that public sentiment in favor of fixing the broken system is too strong for them to oppose it directly:

“The status quo is no longer acceptable. If the dynamic becomes ‘President Obama is on the side of reform and Republicans are against it,' then the battle is lost and every word in this document is useless...Republicans must be for the right kind of reform that protects the quality of healthcare for all Americans. And you must establish your support of reform early in your presentation.”

He says there are some arguments Republicans can make that would be "clear winners":
—“It could lead to the government setting standards of care, instead of doctors who really know what's best.”
—“It could lead to the government rationing care, making people stand in line and denying treatment like they do in other countries with national healthcare.”
-“President Obama wants to put the Washington bureaucrats in charge of healthcare. I want to put the medical professionals in charge, and I want patients as an equal partner.”

These could indeed be powerful arguments, as anyone who has watched previous battles over health care reform can tell you."