Happy With Medicare, Don’t Let Government Take It Over

"I'm happy with Medicare. Don't let the government take it over."

In one form or another, we all have heard this sentiment expressed over and over, and most of us dismiss it as nothing more than misinformation and the irrational fears of those who don’t want any changes made in their own health care.

But there may be something else going on, which is the almost absolute disconnect between anything that works well (Medicare, Social Security) and anything associated with the government (tax system in general, Katrina, failing public schools, etc., etc.).

This disconnect began in earnest when President Ronald Reagan, a man many Americans trusted implicitly, said at his first Inaugural Address:

“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

This sound bite remains as a touchstone for anti-government attacks and has fueled more than a generation of those who fear government policy no matter what. No matter that Mr. Reagan signed the federal law providing COBRA continuation of coverage benefits; no matter that Mr. Reagan endorsed and signed into law the provisions that cut Social Security benefits by raising the entitlement age. No matter that in practice, even those who decry government involvement in the life of the people are happy to benefit from government largesse, from farm, oil, and gas subsidies through the federal employees health plan provided to all in Congress and Medicare, which now provides “socialized medicine” to more than 44 million citizens, whether they want government involved in their lives or not.

Given this abiding faith in existing government programs and nagging fear of any new ones, the path for legislators seeking to reform our health system seems clear—pass legislation, provide coverage for most of those now uninsured, wait five years, and prepare yourself for the critics who don’t want the government to take away their Exchange-run Community Health Insurance plan.