Remember, 95 Percent of Voters Already Have Health Care

Sometimes facts can be really illuminating. I'm watching the grassroots campaign against health care reform, and the truly manic debate about whether or not it is authentic (see: Marc Ambinder's blog).I think Marc is right, and it's worth remembering that the fight to reform health care is about two things:

The first is expanding coverage. The second is controlling costs. And voters have a legitimate concern about the tension between those ideas because the overwhelming majority of voters already have health care. So what many of them see, what they focus on, is a $1 trillion effort to reform a system they are already satisfied with. It doesn't take an Astroturf conspiracy theorist to understand why that might cause public anxiety. Here's Ezra Klein:

White House officials have frequently noted to me that 95 percent of the people who voted for Barack Obama had health-care insurance. 95 percent. That number was presumably higher for John McCain. The electorate, in other words, looks like America after health-care reform passes, not before.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/08/remember-95-percent-of-voters-already-have-health-care/22795/