In Health Care Debate, Fear Trumps Logic

Tuesday, 29 September 2009 15:48

Courtesy of Goddard Claussen In this 1993 television commercial, a couple named Harry and Louise helped sow seeds of doubt in the public about how changes to health care would affect them. The ad was funded by the health insurance lobby to defeat President Clinton's proposed health care plan.

Past efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system had different proponents, different opponents and different plans that were under consideration. But they have two things in common: They all ended in failure, and in every case, opponents used fear as a key weapon in their arsenal.

So Jonathan Oberlander, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says he's not at all surprised to see recent claims — all thoroughly debunked — that suggest, for example, that bills under consideration would encourage senior citizens to commit suicide when they become ill or infirm.

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