Religitics
It is dangerous, and generally unwise, to talk about politics and religion. The trouble is, here in Oklahoma, they’re the same thing.
Christian fundamentalists have long dominated Oklahoma, and when I was young most fundamentalists were Democrats. That changed with the election of Ronald Reagan. At that point fundamentalism became Republican. Fundamentalists, who had always had enormous strength of conviction about religious matters, expanded these convictions to include free-market economics and other right-wing political positions. Suddenly de-regulation and union bashing were on par with doctrines of redemption and atonement. Oklahomans responded to those who questioned for-profit health care as if the questioner had advocated atheism or moon worship.
Americans who live outside the Bible Belt might be puzzled and ask why we can have such a blind faith in markets that sometimes fail catastrophically. How did a religion founded by a guy who said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” come to embrace dog-eat-dog capitalism? To understand this, one really needs to understand the theology that is prevalent in Oklahoma.
Oklahomans believe strongly in sinfulness⎯especially the sinfulness of their neighbors. Each Oklahoman knows he is redeemed, but he also knows that each person meeting him on the street is sinful. This belief, unfortunately, leads us to mistrust others. When the idea of a free market came to the fore, bringing with it the idea that each individual acts in her own self interest, maximizing her own welfare with no particular obligation to others, the idea dovetailed nicely with the way we already perceived each other. It was easy enough for Oklahomans to meld the conventional economic theory of homo economicus into the religion of Oklahoma orthodoxy.
So, what am I arguing for? Two things.
First, a reexamination of Oklahoma orthodoxy. Yes, all of us make mistakes, some big some small. Some mistakes have far-reaching consequences; some are almost meaningless. We are capable of great evil, or great good. We are free to choose which path we will pursue. We do not need to assume the worst about others. Oklahomans lack of trust in their neighbors leads to an exaggerated sense self-reliance that sometimes borders on the ridiculous.
Second, let’s learn our history. The idea that greed is part of a system (Invisible Hand) that leads to maximizing community welfare came from Adam Smith, an 18th century Scottish philosopher. Smith was a deist, rather than a Christian, and he never claimed any sort of relationship between his ideas and Christianity.
A willingness to examine long-held beliefs, accompanied by knowledge of history could give Oklahomans a chance to form a different perspective. We no longer need to accept laissez faire economics as the inevitable reality that can and need never be changed.
Arden Res lives in Oklahoma City.
Big = Good, Except When It’s Not
The various proposals for health care reform in Washington have people talking here in Oklahoma. Even though a single-payer system is apparently not an alternative Congress is considering, some Oklahomans are convinced it is a highly likely outcome. Many Oklahomans seem to feel that a government that is powerful enough to provide health care for everyone is, well, just too powerful. Governments should have limited power–enough to start and conduct wars, manage nuclear weapons, put people in prison–little things like that, but not the amount of power necessary to provide health care. That would be overstepping the bounds of a safe and manageable government.
The puzzling thing is Oklahomans (and many other Americans too) seem to believe that government of bathtub-drowning proportions is ideal while insurance company proportions can be gargantuan with no ill effect. Insurance companies can refuse to sell insurance to people who are likely to need care, drop people who become ill, make mysterious impossible-to-explain “mistakes” that delay payments, and pay top executives ridiculously high salaries. Oklahomans face this very bravely. But the government really scares us.
We don’t especially like insurance companies, but our distrust of government is much greater than our distrust of corporations. How to explain this? We know we can’t vote for the leaders of corporations. Even though we can elect the leaders of our government, we don’t trust them. (And why should we when they get campaign contributions from insurance companies?) We see the private sector as “good” and the public sector as “bad.” We always like the word “free,” and when the business sector can mention the term “free enterprise” or “free market” that sounds really good to Oklahomans. Perhaps if the government described itself as a “free republic”–as in free from King George III–we would like it more.
For most of us Oklahomans however, the issue seems to come down to taxes, costs, and ultimately, how we view our fellow citizens.
Let’s take taxes first. We fear that a government health plan would take too much money in taxes. We would rather pay that money to an insurance company in premiums than see a government plan that would take our money in the form of taxes. That way, people who can afford it pay the insurance company. Then, they fight the insurance company to get claims paid. But, the silver lining is, since it is so difficult to cajole the insurance company into paying even legitimate claims, we can rest assured there are very few fraudulent claims paid.
And this brings up the second big fear–cost. We fear that the government will rubber-stamp any sort of crazy high-cost medical procedure someone might want (or a doctor might prescribe). You never can tell when someone might just decide to have a tonsilectomy for fun or an amputation just for a sense of adventure. And since doctors make money doing these sorts of things, a doctor just might tell someone to have brain surgery for a hangnail. Or a doctor might bill for a liver transplant while actually treating a wart. Did I mention our trust in doctors is, well, lukewarm at best?
And thirdly, we are so fiercely independent, we find it difficult to trust anyone–even each other! We feel we must constantly be on the lookout for rip-off artists. We feel each family should be all but completely self-sufficient. We have grave difficulty with the idea of pooling resources (in the form of tax money) to provide health care for all. We have a suspicion that our neighbors will game the system or that doctors will over-prescribe medical treatments. It’s more than a little amazing that we are willing to pool risk (by buying health insurance) at all!
Yet, we have to wonder… Are the administrative costs of the insurance system eating up so much money and resources that our fears of a government system are simply laughable? Or are the possibilities of fraud (and there have been some zingers within Medicare) that might be associated with universal single-payer health care substantive enough that we should continue to live with the current system? Is our lack of trust in “others,” whoever they may be, rational, or a form of collective paranoia?
Our current system, with the attitudes that underlie it, is very costly; just ask an uninsured Oklahoman.
Arden Rea lives in Oklahoma City.