Two Million Dollars Per Day

Two Million Dollars per day is being spent on advertising/lobbying for and against the Health Care Reform (PBS News Hour Friday, 07/24/09). What do we, the People, get for this money? Slogans, sound bites, half-truths and outright lies. We are supposed to become "emotional" about the issue. We are certainly not learning anything we could use to make an intelligent decision on the subject. And - we do not even get to vote on the reform. Our Representatives are. We know where that leads to, most of the time.

Does the money spent on this propaganda help the economy? I doubt it - the money flows directly into the pockets of the people who own the media. Do they hire more employees? No. The advertising agencies who create the blitz are staffed already. So, does all that make sense? You be the judge.

A couple of comments on the reform itself. For the better part of thirty years I lived with "socialized" medicine in Austria. Neither my family nor I had any more problems with that system than I have had with my doctor visits and hospital stays here. The big difference was that I paid for my insurance through a small payroll deduction and that took care of everything. (Full disclosure: currently there is a symbolic co-pay for doctor visits and prescription drugs). If I wanted to see a 'special' specialist or wanted a better crown than the system would pay for I could shell out the difference and have the satisfaction.

One last question: What is the difference between an insurance-run and a government-run "bureaucracy"? To me there is none, except one very important one - the private insurance does want to make a profit and therefore is more expensive. As an old friend of mine always says "The largest part of 'cost' is profit."