Reply #9: I finally looked back at the thread and it was really ugly.

[beachmom]

I realize the Left is as capable of extremism as the Right. Some went after me in a personal way. I am going to stay away from the health care debate. I mean look at this diary:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/17/754562/-ABCs-Tapper-Slams-Obama-on-Health-Care-Choice

Now I can't stand Jake Tapper, but there actually was relevant information in the article that is being ridiculed in the diary:

But last month, as the president acknowledged during a press conference, he doesn't literally mean that you are guaranteed to be able to keep your health care plan, and your doctor, if and when health care reform passes.

"When I say 'If you have your plan and you like it,... or you have a doctor and you like your doctor, that you don't have to change plans,'" the president said after we asked him about this, "what I'm saying is the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform."

Importantly, the government might create circumstances - say, a public health care option that is less expensive since profit is not a concern and overhead is lower - where you might find your business forcing you into that public plan.

The diarist pokes fun of Tapper, and then says that employers are already dropping health plans, etc. That is all well and good, but the fact is many people are on an employer health care plan, and I tend to think those people vote. Based on what I have seen in Germany, employers don't usually offer the public option; that is for state/federal employees and those unemployed or on welfare. Public is not as good, but it is a Godsend for those who would otherwise be left with nothing. However, I had never considered that employers would switch to a public plan if health care reform passed. Or it would be only an alternative to the private plan they offered.

Now, ABC could have been taking this all too far, and, of course, we are "forced" onto a health care plan already (believe me United Health Care would NOT be my first choice, yet I am stuck with it), but this is relevant for discussion. Not over at Daily Kos, though. A negative piece on their beloved public option must be immediately shot down, ridiculed, and marginalized as boneheadedly stupid. Echo chamber, anyone?