Charles Pierce: the general public has evinced a fairly lethal combination of stupidity, timidity, a

[eridani]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_President_Bows

So the president, in the interest of finding a "middle ground" on his health-care that is approximately as real as are the Elvish lands, has decided to allow people to keep their moth-eaten, useless -- but cheap! -- health-care coverage for a year. This, of course, is meant to "head off" a general stampede by the Democratic chickenshit caucus. It is also meant to show that the president is conscious of the concerns of a Republican opposition that will now proceed to demand a delay in the individual mandate, tort reform, and the removal of one of the As in the president's surname.

Obama delivered a message to Americans who have complained about receiving cancellation notices: "I heard you loud and clear." He continued: "Already people who have plans that predate the Affordable Care Act can keep those plans if they haven't changed. That was already in the law. Today we're going to extend that principle both to people whose plans have changed since the law took effect and people who bought plans since the law took effect."

Translation From The Presidential Weaselspeak: OK, keep that lemon of a plan you're so fond of, but please, shut yer gob about it now. Also, pray that you don't need any medical procedure more complicated than a Band Aid for the next year, because that's all you're covered for. But... cheap!

There are two fundamental dynamics at play here. The first is that, by and large, on this issue, the general public has evinced a fairly lethal combination of stupidity, timidity, and laziness. There's more than enough evidence that most people didn't background themselves sufficiently on their options, and that therefore they were easily scared by Big Scary Letters from the insurance companies, and that therefore they decided it was easier to keep their Get-Sick-And-Die plans than shop around for better ones. None of these were helped by the botched website, but they were all very basic to the subsequent panic over If-You-Like-Your-Plan-Keep-It, which is what scared all the Democrats into bailing out.

[Fumesucker]

1. People ~loathe~ picking insurance plans

You have to wade through a lot of unfamiliar and obscure terminology while looking in your crystal ball to determine what the future will hold for you regarding your health.

I really like Pierce, indeed I posted a piece of his just yesterday, but he's off base on this. People want to do what they do and not have to become experts on insurance legalspeak and medical misadventure in order to simply get medical care when they need it.

Pierce is obviously extremely intelligent and highly literate, not everyone is so blessed.

[Morphia]

2. The ONLY People I know in real life who want their old crap but cheap HC Plan

are Pubs, TeaHadists and "Independent's". You know the ones who HATE PBO and are against anything and everything he does, even if it was a Republican Plan to begin with.

We are dealing with racist morons who are really only a small percentage of voters who no matter what would never vote for a democrat as long as they live so I say let the fools keep their shit plan and let then go in to bankruptcy while 97% of the rest of the nation moves forward.

We need to stop trying to reach these 'people' we never will, so just give them what they want and let them suffer the consequences.

[Laelth]

3. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth