2. Reform will break our existing system

First thing to understand about this argument is that not everyone has the personal connection to the American health care system that the readers of this blog may have.

A large number of recent polls show that: “most insured Americans are satisfied with the quality of the health care they receive” (ABC); most insured Americans say that they are satisfied with the cost of their own health care (ABC); and that most Americans are satisfied (”very” or “somewhat”) with the quality of the health care they receive (CNN).

Perhaps the surprising aspect of this is that at the same time most polls show American satisfaction with their own health care, they also understand the need for national health reform (Kaiser Family Fund).

This same dichotomy existed in the early 1990’s when the Clinton administration began discussing their efforts to overhaul health care in America. In fact in both 2009 and 1993 health care is supposedly the second (to the economy) most important national issue (Harris).

So, we inhabit an environment where the public tends to think that health care in general is in need of reform, but think that their personal healthcare/heath provider are of acceptable quality. This is why the argument that any health reform efforts would break the existing system resonates so strongly.

When pundits say that health care reform would negatively impact quality they are not saying that it would have overall negative impacts – they (very effectively) focus on that the fact that you would lose your Medicare access; that your doctor is going to be disenfranchised from the decision-making process; that a public plan would put your (possibly better than average) health insurance provider out of business.