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Health Care Reform: The Hank Factor

2009-09-21 · John · watch on YouTube · US politics & society · advocacy activism

John argues, using Hank (a small-business owner with ulcerative colitis who could not get insurance until Montana's state plan), that US health insurance tied to big employers discourages entrepreneurship, and makes a 'conservative economic argument' for a nationwide public option.

What is said

00:00:00 — Introducing Hank: age, EcoGeek as a small business, his ulcerative colitis

  • ★★ John says Hank is 29, a video blogger and musician, and runs the environmental technology website EcoGeek. — 00:00:00 · Hank Green, EcoGeek
  • ★★ John says Hank started EcoGeek in graduate school and it has grown into a business. — 00:00:00 · EcoGeek
  • ★★ John casts Hank as the small business people mean when they call small business 'the engine that drives job growth in America'. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John says Hank has ulcerative colitis, describing it comically as a disease whose details you don't want to know. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Hank Green

00:00:36 — Who can't get US health insurance; Hank uninsurable for years because of ulcerative colitis

  • ★★ John says that in the US a big company is required to partner with a private insurer and offer its employees health insurance. — 00:00:36 · United States
  • ★★★ John says the very poor can get Medicaid and the very old Medicare, so the uninsurable are those not poor, not old and not working for a big company. — 00:00:36
  • ★★★ John says that despite a successful business, Hank could not get health insurance for many years because insurers avoid covering ulcerative colitis, which is very expensive. — 00:01:06 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John says insurers are not evil; they simply, and correctly, see Hank as a bad investment. — 00:01:06
  • ★★ John says Hank must take a medicine costing $20 a day and has a greater risk of colon cancer, an incredibly expensive disease. — 00:01:06

00:01:35 — Not everything that sucks for Hank is government's job; government's job is protecting us

  • ★ John says not every hardship of Hank's is his to fix, joking about Hank's childhood love of My Little Ponies. (playful) — 00:01:35
  • ★★★ John says government is not in the business of giving people everything they want or need, but it is in the business of protecting them: military, trade treaties, market regulation. — 00:01:35

00:02:04 — Montana's state plan insures Hank; the conservative economic case for a public option; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says Montana, not known for liberal bias, partnered with a private insurer on a somewhat affordable plan open to anyone regardless of pre-existing conditions. — 00:02:04 · Montana
  • ★★★ John says Hank now has insurance through that plan, though without drug coverage he still pays $20 a day; worrying less about cancer and bankruptcy, he invests more in EcoGeek, which employs more people. — 00:02:04 · Hank Green, EcoGeek
  • ★★★ John calls this the real conservative economic argument for a public health-insurance option across America. — 00:02:33 · United States > «the real conservative economic argument for why we need a public option»
  • ★★★ John says the current system rewards being poor, old or at a big corporation and discourages the entrepreneurial spirit that made the US economy strong. — 00:02:33
  • ★★★ John says it is bad economics for citizens' job decisions to be driven by health-care costs rather than revenue growth. — 00:03:03

Humor (significant)

  • John introduces Hank over humiliating footage of him dancing, with the music removed. — 00:00:00 > «dancing is funnier when you remove the music»
  • John explains what ulcerative colitis is like without the details. — 00:00:36 > «it's like your whole body is on earth except for your intestines which are in hell»
  • John says not every Hank problem is his to fix, recalling Hank liked My Little Ponies as a kid. — 00:01:35 > «I don't want to have to pay for the therapy Hank needs to deal with the shame and humiliation of his My Little Pony fetish»
  • Listing why government regulates the free market. — 00:02:04 > «not letting Walmart sell black tar heroin to children»

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