{"id":8749,"date":"2012-06-28T07:11:14","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T11:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=8749"},"modified":"2012-06-28T03:28:03","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T07:28:03","slug":"poor-people-will-die-just-because-they-are-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/06\/28\/poor-people-will-die-just-because-they-are-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Poor people will die just because they are poor’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That\u2019s a feature, not a bug. It\u2019s a boast, not an accusation. It is, the speaker says, a \u201cprinciple\u201d that must be \u201caccepted,\u201d not an injustice that must be corrected.<\/p>\n

It sounds<\/em> like an accusation \u2014 \u201cYou people<\/em> think we should just accept that poor people will die just because they are poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sounds like a really nasty thing to accuse someone of. Jonathan Chait is reluctant to accuse Republicans of anything that viciously cruel. His argument stops short of that, making the case, instead, that Republicans believe in \u201cHealth Care as a Privilege<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

Opponents of the law have endlessly invoked \u201csocialism.\u201d Nothing in the Affordable Care Act or any part of President Obama\u2019s challenges the basic dynamics of market capitalism. All sides accept that some of us should continue to enjoy vastly greater comforts and pleasures than others. If you don\u2019t work as hard as Mitt Romney has, or were born less smart, or to worse parents, or enjoyed worse schools, or invested your skills in an industry that collapsed, or suffered any other misfortune, then you will be punished for this. Your television may be low-definition, or you might not be able to heat or cool your home as comfortably as you would like; you may clothe your children in discarded garments from the Salvation Army.<\/p>\n

This is not in dispute. What is being disputed is whether the punishments to the losers in the market system should include, in addition to these other things, a denial of access to non-emergency medical treatment. The Republican position is that it should. They may not want a woman to have to suffer an untreated broken ankle for lack of affordable treatment. Likewise, I don\u2019t want people to be denied nice televisions or other luxuries. I just don\u2019t think high-definition television or nice clothing are goods that society owes to one and all. That is how Republicans think about health care.<\/p>\n

This is why it\u2019s vital to bring yourself face-to face with the implications of mass uninsurance \u2014 not as emotional manipulation, but to force you to decide what forms of material deprivation ought to be morally acceptable. This question has become, at least at the moment, the primary philosophical divide between the parties. Democrats will confine the unfortunate to many forms of deprivation, but not deprivation of basic medical care. Republicans will. The GOP is the only mainstream political party in the advanced world to hold this stance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The full title of Chait\u2019s column is \u201cHealth Care as a Privilege: What the GOP Won\u2019t Admit<\/a>,\u201d and he writes that, \u201cThe maddening thing is that Republicans refuse to advocate the position openly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Libertarian economist Tyler Cowen takes up that challenge \u2014 admitting everything Chait alleges and then some. Here is a Republican proudly and openly advocating the position Chait describes. Health care, Cowen says, is indeed a privilege<\/a> \u2014 even life-saving health care:<\/p>\n

A rejection of health care egalitarianism, namely a recognition that the wealthy will purchase more and better health care than the poor. Trying to equalize health care consumption hurts the poor, since most feasible policies to do this take away cash from the poor, either directly or through the operation of tax incidence. We need to accept the principle that sometimes poor people will die just because they are poor. Some of you don\u2019t like the sound of that, but we already let the wealthy enjoy all sorts of other goods \u2014 most importantly status \u2014 which lengthen their lives and which the poor enjoy to a much lesser degree.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here is another Republican, American Family Association culture warrior Bryan Fischer also freely admitting that he believes health care should be a privilege<\/a> only afforded to those who can afford it. Fischer fully embraces Cowen\u2019s \u201cprinciple\u201d that \u201csometimes poor people will die just because they are poor,\u201d and argues that it ought to happen more often than it already does:<\/p>\n

If we want to bring down the cost of health care, it\u2019s easy. What we lack is not the way but the will.<\/p>\n

The way is simple.<\/p>\n

First, eliminate the federal requirement that hospitals have to treat any patient who shows up. That\u2019s the place to begin. Get government out of telling hospitals who they have to do business with. There is simply no way to control the cost of health care if hospitals are obligated to provide healthcare to all regardless of their ability to pay.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And (via<\/em> Adventus<\/a>) yet another Republican happily admitting that, yes, health care is a privilege<\/a> only for the deserving who can afford it:<\/p>\n

Opponents of the federal health care law see the problem of the uninsured very differently. They object not just to the price tag of expanding coverage to millions more people, but to the whole philosophy behind it.<\/p>\n

Texans are individualistic and value their freedoms and responsibilities, said Lucy Nashed, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, who notes\u00a0 Medicaid spending is a big part of Texas\u2019 budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndividual responsibility is about making healthy choices and taking ownership of your lifestyle \u2014 not just about buying health insurance,\u201d Nashed said. \u201cAnd you can\u2019t legislate a healthy lifestyle.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Karoli wrote in response to Cowen\u2019s column<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This is what a sociopath looks like. In the 19th century, the same principle was expressed when Dickens wrote \u201cLet them die, and decrease the surplus population.\u201d Yes, people still believe this, especially those who also claim to be Christians.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s a feature, not a bug. It\u2019s a boast, not an accusation. It is, the speaker says, a \u201cprinciple\u201d that must be \u201caccepted,\u201d not an injustice that must be corrected. It sounds like an accusation \u2014 \u201cYou people think we should just accept that poor people will die just because they are poor.\u201d That sounds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[69,58],"class_list":["post-8749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-warfare","tag-antigovernment","tag-greed"],"yoast_head":"\n'Poor people will die just because they are poor'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That's a feature, not a bug. It's a boast, not an accusation. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Poor people will die just because they are poor'","description":"That's a feature, not a bug. It's a boast, not an accusation. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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