Monday, October 15, 2012

Why Does Romney Claim That Nobody Dies In America Because They Have No Insurance?

Romney told a newspaper in Ohio that people don't die in the US because they are uninsured.  This echoes the claim by George Bush who made a similar argument.  He argued that people without insurance can go to hospital emergency rooms.  Paul Krugman states that Romney has an ideological blinder that does not allow him to see what happens to people without insurance coverage.  He then points out the reality of what happens to those without coverage.  This raises an interesting question about ideology.  Romney may be blinded by his ideology or he may really know what happens to those without coverage.  Romney is a smart person.  He probably does know how people are affected by the lack of health insurance.  Those people, however, are not his constituents.  His job is to sell an ideology to others so that they can blind themselves to the realities faced by those who are excluded from society because of their financial status.  The real purpose of ideologies is to commit others to a belief system that does not require one to examine facts.  The ideology is all that is necessary.  For example, people are sold on the ideology of free markets. That ideology is used to limit the role of government in the market system.  If government attempts to limit pollution,   or to insure the safety and effectiveness of drugs, businesses that are affected by those efforts will appeal to freedom from government.  On the other hand, if government attempts to open markets to more competition, businesses that benefit from the lack of competition will scream about government interference in the free market.  Moreover, if government offers tax breaks, or other forms of subsidies, to the true believers in free markets they tend to forget about the ideology of free markets.  Ideologies are primarily a way to prevent those who are sold on the ideology from examining facts.

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