Editore"s Note
Tilting at Windmills

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March 29, 2005
By: Kevin Drum

MORE JARGON WATCH....Speaking of jargon, Victor Fuchs and Ezekiel Emanuel had an interesting op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News yesterday. It's about healthcare:

We propose...a comprehensive reform: universal health care vouchers a 10-point proposal that is congruent with basic American values and should secure broad, bipartisan support.

  • All Americans under 65 will receive a voucher that guarantees them basic health care services such as doctor visits, hospitalization, pharmacy benefits, some mental and dental health services and catastrophic coverage, from a qualified health plan or health insurance company....

I'll spare you their other nine points. What I really want to point out is their use of language, particularly:

...universal health care vouchers...

Isn't that interesting? Their plan is a fairly ordinary single-payer proposal, but instead of calling it merely "universal health care," they steal conservative language and and call it "universal health care vouchers." Sounds just like those school vouchers the wingers are always going on about, doesn't it?

That's a clever use of language. By no means will it help their plan to secure "broad, bipartisan support," but it's the kind of thing that can help swing public opinion if it gets repeated often enough. I like it.

Kevin Drum 2:33 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (0)
 
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