Why More Conservatives Should Want Health Care Reform

Paul Krugman has a pretty good op-ed in the New York Times today about why he thinks we should pass the current health care legislation. Basically, Krugman thinks it’s morally obligatory to pass the bill (to stop the predatory practices of some insurance companies), and he thinks that while the current bill isn’t perfect, it’s a worthwhile improvement over the status quo.

I tend to agree with this, but there’s one reason in particular he offered that really popped out to me:

“Employment-based health insurance, which is already regulated in a way that mostly prevents this kind of abuse, is unraveling. Less than half of workers at small businesses were covered last year, down from 58 percent a decade ago. This means that in the absence of reform, an ever-growing number of Americans will be at the mercy of the likes of Assurant Health.”

This is absolutely true, but the funny thing to me is that a growing portion of of the Republican voting base is made up of working class people whom these layoffs are directly affecting but who are strongly against the reform. In the status quo, such people don’t have easy access to health insurance from their employers (they have none), from the government, or from their own private purchase of insurance (which is often too expensive). In other words, it’s in the direct interest of this group to support health care reform, but instead they rally against it. Seems a little counterintuitive, doesn’t it?

–Aaron Bekemeyer