Health Care Opposition Zeitgeist

(via Nate Silver) This wordle represents the responses from people who opposed health care reform in the recent Gallop poll. According to these responses, people's biggest complaint (or worry) is government. Presumably the looming government takeover of health care, or as I often see it expressed, the government takeover of one-sixth of the economy.

Incidentally, that is not a view I share.

source: http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1783870/healthcarebad and http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/03/two-pictures-tell-story-on-health-care.html

A few points about the health care reform "takeover"

• It is a "takeover" that will spend nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years. That is a lot of money, but it accounts for less than 4% of expected health care spending for the next decade.
• It is a "takeover" that protects health insurance companies, provides incentives to small businesses to remain or start offering group health benefits, and helps the 50+ percent of the population enrolled in group coverage to remain in that group coverage.
• It is a "takeover" that strengthens Medicare financing by reducing Medicare advantage over-payments, increasing payments to primary care physicians to promote health, reduces payments to specialists to reduce overuse, and helps the 15% of the population in Medicare to remain in Medicare.
• It is a “takeover” that directly affects about 10-15% of the population by financially helping them purchase health insurance from private companies to obtain services from private enterprise providers.