New York – Why do most American Jews support the president’s and the Democratic Party’s health care plan?
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Ask most American Jews and they will tell you that it is a moral imperative, that it is a shame on the republic that 40 million Americans do not have health insurance.
I take my fellow American Jews’ word for it. Unlike my ideological opponents, I do not ascribe nefarious motives to those I differ with.
But the reason for their support goes deeper than a desire to see more Americans insured. Those of us who opposed this plan also want to see more Americans insured.
The deeper issue, as President Obama has acknowledged, is the size of government. On CBS’ “Face the Nation” last fall, Obama said, “What’s driving passions right now is that health care has become a proxy for a broader set of issues about how much government should be involved in the economy.”
Exactly right. Jews and other Americans on the left believe deeply in the state as the greatest single force for good in society. Those of us not on the left fear the state’s growth.
Why Jews believe so deeply in the state is a real puzzle. It is not as if the powerful state has been a friend of the Jews. If Jews were often persecuted and killed by religion in the Middle Ages, they — not to mention many millions of Chinese, Koreans, Cambodians and Rwandans — were persecuted and slaughtered en masse by the (secular) state in the 20th century.
One reason Jews have fared so much better in America than anywhere else is that the state has been weaker here. In Europe, where the modern welfare state originated (in anti-Semitic pre-Hitler Germany, as it happens), Jews have fared poorly in comparison to America — not only in the first half of the 20th century, but today. Since World War II, Jews have done far better in America with its Judeo-Christian values, its reliance on the individual and its weaker central government than in Europe with its far larger governments. As a rule, the bigger and stronger the state, the worse it has been for Jews.
Read more of Dennis Pragers Editorial at The Jewish Journal
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, columnist, author and public speaker.
That means Kupat Cholim is bad for the Jews and the doctors working for Kupat Cholim hurt Jews and every Jewish doctor in Britain is harming Jews
You don’t want government in your life, but you want welfare, food stamps, medicaid, section 8, medicare, etc. etc. What a bunch of hypocrits you are.
finally someone that understands the issue
We like free stuff. simple!
I think that this is another case of correlation being mistaken for causation. Despite the forms of government which exist now in Europe, virtually every modern European country has a Christian background. Christianity has always been anti-Semitic. Expecting the culture to change with the government is silly.
The United States is based on Judeo-Christian values, but the form of Christianity practiced by most Americans is not the same (Catholicism) as that which permeated Europe. Additionally, as America has a much wider range of cultures than any European country, it is hard for any one culture to dominate national policy.
This is another manifestation of the fact that non-frum Jews usually go Democrat, while most frum people are Republican (the Wall Street Journal actually did a study and found that that’s the case). When you have a yiddishe neshama, with no Torah hashkafos (and often worse), of course they’re going to be liberal – K’lal Yisrael Rachamonim. Misplaced Rachmonis is often a disaster waiting to happen (and it’s why their are so many Jewish – but not frum – feminists and PETA-types).
“Don’t be more Catholic than the Pope” – and don’t think you have more humanitarian views than the Torah (which, incidentally, is called “Rachmana” in the Gemara).
Right on!!!
Brilliant article!
Free? I’ll take two.
i cant see how this woudl be “bad for jews”…. i was not into the debate. but seeing what they passed. i think it will do much more good than harm. true some people will pay more in taxes and if you make a high salary you lll pay more for your premiums. but its about time we have coverage for all who need it. and anything that really goes wrong can be fixed in the future. i think we have some good legislation. now lets hope obama can do better with israel.
America is not Western Europe. In Europe we find a long and still enduring history of anti-semitism. There is no real basis to suggest that here (in the USA) extended Governmental involvment in domestic affairs posses a danger to Jews. We Jews are liberal because our Tenach teachings prompt us to care for others as well as ourselves. The observant community finds the liberal agenda on moral value issues not acceptable. However, that liberal agenda on social welfare and economic issues (the benefits of that agenda that many of us utilize) should be compatible with our outlook and interests.
Reply to #2 those of us who work hard and have worked for the past 40 plus years or longer and do not get food stamps, section 8, welfare, medicaid,( do your homework medicare is different and actually mandated by the states to have, much to the chagrin of some of us seniors) do not want so much government in our lives and are not democrats. This article is right on target .
I am not sure that most Jews support the health reform bill. I wonder where the author(s) get their statistics. Did a repudable firm do the polling? How were the questions worded?
The bill will take away the choices we now have because of more people on the health dole and with the same number of doctors. To keep costs down, we now will have to get permission from government bureaucrats for permission to get new treatments.
Let us take a moment to understand this healthcare bill for what it is an unsustainable government program. Allow me to lead you through my thought process.
Yes anyone who enrolls in the ObamaCare program will pay less to get in. However this plan does not achieve the goal of reducing healthcare operating costs. In fact as has been shown time and time again government regulation simply increases cost.
Les start with the clauses which prohibit Insurance companies from practicing risk diversification (ie denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions) in their patient portfolios will only lead to further increase in cost to own a private policy. With greater risk comes greater cost.
Next let’s discuss the $750.00 penalty for employers who do not provide healthcare insurance to their employees. So say you are an employer with 100 employees each of whom cost you approximately $3000.00 a year to Insure, now you have the option of paying $750.00 a year and not have to deal with your employees healthcare issues. You no longer have costs related to managing your employees benefit and you no longer need to negotiate premiums, what are you going to do?
Like any astute business owner you choose ObamaCare.
Here is where the issue begins. If more employers choose to cover their employees under ObamaCare, we end up with a Medicare program for the under 65. While to most people in this country it may seem that the Medicare is working fine, and it is from a Medical standpoint, however when it comes to a financial standpoint it is severely handicapped. Medicare reimbursement does not cover the cost of providing in care, so how do you ask do providers stay in business? Good question, essentially providers stay in business because the negotiated reimbursement rates from insurance companies that all of us buy into make up for the shortfall in Medicare reimbursement.
By now you may be saying to yourself uh oh I see where this is going and you would be correct if insurance reimbursement is being replaced by Obamacare reimbursement which will be reimbursing providers at a lower rate than what Medicare reimburses today how will providers stay in the business? The answer is they wont. As a matter of fact you will have fewer students studying to become physicians and more physicians closing their practice or turning to an all cash practice.
Back to Obamacare yes it lowers the cost of owning a policy. But address none of the underlying cost issues plaguing the healthcare system today, namely fraud, over or improper billing, over utilization of care, malpractice costs, waste etc.
In regards to the imposition of a multi billion excise tax on the insurance, drug and medical device manufactures, as part of this bill, companies don’t pay for additional expenses like that they simply calculate the amount of additional revenue required to stay revenue neutral and pass the additional expense onto the consumer.
Yes we need reform, reform is defined as: 1 a : to put or change into an improved form or condition b : to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses. Not a single part of this bill meets the definition. Reform our current system don’t create new systems, which as all government programs eventually do, create new problems
Reform Indeed!
Government has the worst record for managing business well. Examine the deficit. Revisit the “stimulus” package that increased unemployment rates with only spurious blips of “improvement”. I shudder at the notion that my health care will determined by a bureaucrat, not someone with the scientific and medical knowledge to know better. There are safeguards in some of the countries with nationalized health care to prevent these system failures. Those will not happen in US, because the goal is to establish socialism and bring the gov’t into every facet of our existence.
The oilem goilem that does not study the health care reform bill, that believes anyone with a D after their name, that has no problem with bankrupting our future, with rationalizing and accepting the greatest moral travesties in history all accept the “liberal agenda”.
Most Frum Jews were already on medicaid/medicare. They won’t even notice the difference.
#4 “liking free stuff” is the dumbest most shortsighted reason ever given for embracing socialism and the like (not that there is a smart reason to embrace it). its only a certain segment of the jewish population that believes so strongly in not working and the “kimt mir” mentality. Go freaking work
Health care for all *is* a moral imperative.
And there is no such thing as “Judeo-Christian values”. Judaism and Christianity are very different religions.
This is such garbage. What percentage of frum yidden want to eliminate Medicare and Medicaid? That’s what I thought. This notion that support for public health insurance is an indication of your desire to see the government take over everything is absurd. The “big government” Dennis laments, is precisely what has made it possible for so many in the frum world to have many children and be able to support them. Take away every social program Dennis would prefer to see eliminated, and lets see how a family of ten in Kiryas Joel functions. Private health insurance for a family of 12? The full cost of food, housing, tuition, and transportation with no subsidies or Earned Income Credits? I would love to see that. And spare me with the dubious argument that the elimination of these programs would usher in lower taxes.
Nonsense. Other than sales tax, most welfare recipients don’t pay taxes as it.
1) the fact is that before goverment intervention here in america frum jew were not abble to find a job with out having to give up on observing the shabas its actully becuse of the goverment we can live here as frum jews
2) in the era when real capatalisem was the way of living then a lot of yiden had to dance for the evel purits and the goverment didn’t mixed in to stop the purits becuse of small goverment
3) our sages hold that a state has to provide free educaition for all children even they are not paying another way of goverment intervention in the private
regardless of all that there lota of yiden that are going to benfit of that bill like there is a lot of the generel population going to benefit we jews had the same problems with the current system yhat all americans had and that’s the reason most jews are happy with the new law
Its true govt is not usually efficient in implimenting programs. But in regard to healthcare the reality is that in the US the cost of healthcare per capita is 2-3X per what other developed countries spend on healthcare.
really this message is like saying fresh air is bad for you because the government has set standards for clean air. Maybe the author of this article should convince Jews who don’t have health insurance and are depending on charity which means treated by a resident and long waiting. This is slanting facts.The government is alright if provides funds for bailing out ganeivishe investment banks and all other financial riff raff
reply to #35
you cite the lower adminisrative overhead but neglect to point out that Medicare and Medicaid have much higher fraud rates as well. Undoubtedly, one is linked to the other. The gov’t employees at CMMS have little or no incentive to root out fraud while private insurance companies employees and the companies themselves have every reason to. Their company could go bankrupt if they don’t screen claims carefully but overhead rises as a result.
WILL turn usa in to like europe
Common sense – this above article tells it like it is in a benign way. Being a religious Jew and yet being a leftist is, literally, an oxymoron! Understandable why liberals think the way they do, they have no G-D in their life.