Framing the Healthcare Message

Kevin Drum has a good post up on the way that Democrats need to frame the Healthcare issue. I think that he is very right that we have concentrated too much on helping the poor as the reason to initiate a universal national health insurance program. Many folks in the middle class are tired of the 'helping the poor' message not because they are callous, but because they believe, and fairly so, that they are already doing what they can. There are plenty of folks who are already generous in their private lives, and who support a fair degree of public assistance already, who believe that we are doing enough. We have already sold them on 'helping the poor' as much as we can. We need to press our policies on other benefits that they provide.

And indeed there are other benefits. National Health Care (NHC) will reduce costs on businesses of all sizes. Particularly for small businesses, keeping all one's employees healthy can be very good for the bottom line. NHC will help make that happen. For people who are working now and have insurance, it will improve mobility to have NHC. You're better off if you can easily change jobs if circumstances warrant. Additionally, improved job mobility could well improve working conditions for everyone if employers learn that they'd better treat their people well or their people will leave. These are just a few of the points that we should press when trying to sell health care.