Ezra Klein on why the Matlock demographic opposes health care reform:
What are seniors so afraid of?
From the beginning, Medicare has been named as one of the potential sources of savings that would fund subsidies for the uninsured. That sounds like service cuts, even if the specific changes don’t involve anything of the kind (most of the savings would come from reducing overpayments to the private insurers that participate in the Medicare Advantage program).
So the fear is not of a welfare state but of changes in their welfare state. The result is that the coalition against reform is an odd union between people opposing government-run health care and people defending government-run health care. It’s a potent combination.
[….]But taken as a whole, the attitudes seniors express on health care are arguably the greatest vote of confidence anyone has offered reform. Seniors live in America’s version of Canada. They have single-payer health care. And they love it. They love it so much that they’ve got the chairman of the RNC swearing to protect it.
Read the whole piece. Even if you don’t, please click through to keep the click-counters happy. If you don’t, the terrorists win.
Update. I see that as I was writing this, John was asking the same questions about seniors. I guess great minds think alike.
Keep your hands off <i>my</i> welfare statePost + Comments (121)