Tracey Barnett: All this political wrangling can be bad for your health

What luck. Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I swear.

That explains a lot this week; Kanye West's awards mutiny on stage, Serena Williams' bodacious cussing, and my favourite US Congressional uh-oh of the week, Republican Joe Wilson's "You lie!" to the President during a hallowed joint Congressional address.

The powers that be almost wet themselves. Why this collective gasp from the land of bipolar Fox News, where drawing a Hitler moustache on an Obama poster is considered a patriotic act in some circles?

Sure, Americans believe in yelling, almost as much as professional wrestling and cheese fries. But every verbal fracas has its place. Unlike Britain or here, one never heckles in Congress.

When someone has the floor, you shut up. Especially, no one dares to diss the President during a speech. They didn't do that to "W" even when his approval ratings were in the ol' chum bucket. Bad form, Capt'n Slappy.

Except, of course, if after the apology, the rogue happens to seize the ship and send out a fast call for campaign cash that nets the mutineer US$2 million ($2.8 million) for his South Carolina re-election coffers.

Civility isn't dead. It just doesn't pay as well. Fox's Glen Beck couldn't have milked a single manic moment better.

Meanwhile, Americans are still shouting about healthcare reform and spitting out "Socialist!" at town halls like it's incest. Kiwis look around at the sanity of their system and wonder what all this bellyaching is about. Can't Americans just take a page from our book for once?

Sure, the American right would argue, as long as I don't need a full course of Herceptin, or have to fly to Australia to get my chemo after I've been on months' long waiting lists, or have to uproot my Wellington family to Auckland to get a pediatric oncologist to treat my stricken child.

I'm not willing to sacrifice my loved one's health for a system that has compromises I don't have to put up with now. And so goes the battle. What seems so simple from afar ignores one vital thing.

This debate has hit a nerve that taps into America's oldest political divide. Ask any American one question, "Who do you trust will take better care of you, your Government or private interests?" - Arrrrg, there be the rub.

The left will say they trust their Government. They look at this fight as being about a greater good, a moral imperative. They argue any nation worth its weight in donuts cares for its entire people, not just those with a healthy pay cheque.

They're afraid Obama is compromising away one of the biggest chances to get real healthcare reform in decades by hedging on the so-called public option, or government provided insurance, proposed to run as cost-containing competition to private insurance.

America already has partially socialised medicine that is very popular, Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. It makes economic sense to extend it to fix a sick system that is pulling the country down the gurgler.

Those on the right say they trust private interests, no contest. They see this as violating a basic American value, restricting their freedom to choose.

They feel Government intervention creates more problems, not solutions. They finger huge new government spending on car and bank industry bailouts and they're scared.

They're not willing to bankrupt their grandchildren by trying to provide a plan for everybody that may not be better. After all, Hurricane Katrina wasn't much of a poster for US government efficacy.

The system itself may stink, but America is still the land where kings come to get healed. Arguably, the US has the best doctors and the finest facilities in the world, there's just too many spoons dipping into the stew, they say.

Bottom line, both sides see this as being about a moral right. They just define it differently.

What most Kiwis don't realise is that no one, not even Obama, is remotely proposing a nationalised health service like Britain, Canada or here. Not even close.

The closest America gets is a proposed government insurance plan only, called the public option. Sadly, this debate has gradually morphed into an argument about insurance reform. Big difference.

Every President since Johnson has fallen on his sword when up against big healthcare corporates. The big noise today is because Americans think this President has a chance.

The jury is still out. Americans are mad, but the truth is, no one is sure what will really work.

Homer and Marge are suffering economically because of corporate Wall Street greed they feel they had nothing to do with.

They're ready to yell even louder when corporate interests and government are messing with their bodies.

This isn't climate change, an issue that they can't see or touch.

This is personal. Stay tuned mateys.

www.traceybarnett.co.nz