Fake News
7th January 2017
The OFloinn takes a look.
On the visceral level, the casual TV viewer on the evening news — and this is most viewers — is left with only the vague impression of Democratic leadership gathered around a poorly-designed sign reading “Make America Sick Again.” This is a heck of a motto with which to associate one’s party. It is only in the fine print that one sees that they blame the Republicans for doing this; but who reads the fine print in a 15-second sound bite on the evening news? As an ad slogan even a neophyte on Madison Ave. could come up with something ten times better.
On the rational level, the ad’s failure is worse. People do not get sick because they lack health insurance. They get sick because they contract diseases or suffer injuries. The lack of insurance affects the ability to pay for the care, but that is a different problem. In fact, a major reason why many people had foregone insurance in the past was that, being young and healthy, they saw no need for the expense. That did not account for all of the uninsured, but it was a big chunk of them. Nor is it true that Americans were especially sick before the Obama administration determined to subsidize the insurance industry.
I can’t wait to hear Scott Adams’ take on this.