"Obamacare" Is Socialism? Another Job for the Mythbusters!

Here's the second installment in the Mythbusters series! See the first, about the "lazy homeless," right here. The Mythbusters are social work superheroes fighting for truth and social justice. (The characters are also a product of the authors' overactive imagination and proof that they have a three-year-old child.)

One of our neighbors has a friend who is facing a potential tragedy. This friend's husband has a life-threatening illness. They have three children all under the age of 10. Her husband is getting rigorous treatments and though he's showing some improvement, she's losing hope.

He hasn't worked in a year and she is a stay-at-home mom. But they still have a roof over their heads. How have they been able to pay their bills? Thankfully her parents are relatively well-off financially and have been helping out. Her folks have been paying the mortgage, helping with other daily expenses and covering Cobra premiums to maintain her husband's health insurance, which covers the entire family. The Cobra premium alone costs more than $2,000 a month. They are part of a relative minority of people who have a solid support network both emotionally and financially.

One day we were chatting with our neighbor while our children played together. She had just detailed the tough times her friend was going through the day before. This day's topic involved health care reform, and she said that she was upset that "Obamacare" passed because it will lead to the socialization of our health care system. "Just another handout to the poor while our taxes go up," she added. As with any time we hear such statements, it took all our effort not to pull out our soapbox and begin the debate. Alas! Looks like another job for the Mythbusters! Two social work superheroes who leap tall lies in a single bound and dispel myths with their logic-ray guns to fight for truth and social justice.

This was going to be a delicate balance between appealing to her reason and sensibility without offending and upsetting her. We started by asking her to go into more detail about what she was concerned about with health care reform. We then talked about all the benefits of the legislation providing insurance to millions of Americans who are working full-time without benefits and trapped in the catch-22 of making too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but not earning enough to afford health insurance. We also pointed out that most (if not all) of the people we've worked with over the years in this situation don't have a strong support system to provide assistance in times of need. To bring the point home, we noted that we were thankful that her friend had her family to help her through this difficult time.

At first she didn't see the connection between her friend's situation and that of the millions of uninsured Americans. "No. I'm talking about the welfare moms with six kids who just picks up a check every week. Why should I pay more taxes to support their drug habits?"

This is a tougher battle than we thought! Please, if it were really this easy, this blog would no longer be needed. So, we continued. "We have to say that what you are describing is a myth that was initially created by President Reagan in the 1980s as a way to turn public sentiment against the poor. We've been working in social service for over 10 years and have worked with thousands of persons living in poverty and have never encountered anyone as you describe."

Those who are fortunate enough to have amazing support networks, like our neighbor, can sometimes take for granted that support. We realize that most people who are in the direst need of healthcare are those who do not have much support at all. Obama's plan, which was signed into law, can help all of these people — even our neighbor. With the economy being the way it is, we all need some assistance. To have something as basic and necessary as healthcare be covered by our government could benefit millions of struggling families. This is the message of the Mythbusters. They will not stop until all myths are defeated!

Image credit: Rich Lombino