Somewhat Situational views on Health Reform

Ezra Klein, as always has two fascinating posts. The first involves health insurance exchanges, something that I think he is right to focus on. Without them we do not really have a market. Read his post, as I think he explains it much better, and there is little point to reinvent the wheel here as an amateur.

The other post Klein has today involves some of the hypocrisy on the Republican side. Here I think linking to another story in the news may shed some light on understanding what goes on here.

Recently, of course, we saw Mark Sanford, a very conservative Republican, admit to an affair. He is in a long line of these problematic politicians. However, perhaps there is more going on here.

The Situationist Blog has an interesting post about the matter. In it, they argue that the situation and our underlying psychological framework may serve as a better explanation for what is going on here.

So why bring up sex scandal in the world of health reform? I think in some sense the Republicans are managing to play off our own situational factors here.

While polls have stated that most Americans want to have a public option in the health debate, there is a great deal of worry that insurance companies will disappear. These companies are seen, like many corporations, as perhaps nasty, but on a deeper level giving us choice. Furthermore, the public plan, when framed correctly can cause problems. Ingrained in us is a sense of reactance, a sort of horror and recoil, toward the idea of regulation and government. Summed up simply free markets = free people, and therefore markets are good, regulation and government are bad.

Part of what the Republicans seek to do is play off of this. These hypocrisies arise too in many other areas of the corporate world. Both the food industry (a discussion in a post coming up soon) and the beauty industry often have conflicting messages, but, this hypocrisy actually is necessary for understanding the matter. See Adam Benforado, Jon Hanson, & David Yosifon, Broken Scales: Obesity and Justice in America, 53 Emory L.J. 1645, 1711-21 (2004).

While I agree with Klein as to how these people are ridiculous, I would urge those who support comprehensive reform with good exchanges and a public option, like me, to consider how the opposition seeks to manipulate the situation and speak to deeper issues here. It does not matter in the end that things conflict. What matters more is how it speaks to people.