All health insurance reform is personal

So we were watching news coverage of the health care reform issue, when a certain 87-year-old acquaintance of mine says, “Well, I just hope they don’t take away my health insurance.”

Breathe, Jim. Stay calm.

“Nobody’s talking about taking away your health insurance,” I said. “I’m pretty sure they’re trying to figure out a way to extend health insurance to people who don’t already have it.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” she said. “Sounds to me like they’re trying to take it away.”

“Where’d you hear that?” I said. Breathe.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound good to me,” said the 87-year-old, whose health care (including open heart surgery) has been paid for by the U.S. government for 22 years.

“Come on. Exactly when did you hear anybody say, ‘We’re going to take health care away from America’s seniors’?”

“I don’t know,” she said, unperturbed. “I just think that’s what they want to do.”

The smart thing to do was to keep my mouth shut. As usual, I didn’t.

“So let me get this straight,” I said. “You think this whole health care reform thing is actually a conspiracy to take away your Medicare? Are you kidding me? Who would propose that? No politician would do that! It would be political suicide!”

She remained unperturbed. She settled into her chair. “Well, I just don’t trust ’em,” she said. “And that’s all there is to it.”

I finally let it drop and resumed watching the news. I wasn’t going to get anywhere arguing about it, and, besides, I had already learned a valuable lesson. I had seen polls showing that people who are 65 and older are more wary of health care reform than anybody, and now I knew why. It has little to do with logic – after all, these are the exact people who are already enjoying the benefits of a very popular form of government health insurance called Medicare.

They simply don’t trust the politicians to do the right thing for them. Period.

And I can’t say I blame them. Politicians have not exactly been reliable and trustworthy protectors of the public well-being.

But I think it also revealed another aspect of human nature, a completely understandable one, if not entirely admirable. That is our tendency to discount any problem that is not our problem.

I heard this stated in the starkest possible terms during the health care reform protests this summer.

“We don’t need to reform health care,” said one of the protesters. “I have health insurance and it works just fine.”

Oh, well, never mind, then.

This isn’t that far away from what a lot of senior citizens are saying: “We already have health insurance. Don’t try to change it, or you’ll probably just screw it all up.”

Meanwhile, those of us under 65 should be the ones truly terrified – terrified that nothing will be done at all. I was the one who should have uttered the words, “Well, I just hope they don’t take away my health insurance.”

Because if I lose my job, I lose my health insurance. It happens to people every day.