Health care: Reminding people of death triggers irrational emotions

Sharon Begley, science writer for Newsweek, has written one of the best articles I’ve seen so far on the acrimony of the current health care debate. It’s not about the politics, which are unpredictable. It’s an analysis of the underlying psychology, which will not easily be changed.
I recommend reading the entire article. Here are some highlights.

The idea of death panels gains … credibility, … “because many people are vaguely aware that end-of-life care is bankrupting Medicare and that at some point we have to figure out how to deal with that.” …
The power of “death panels” as a phrase and a scare tactic also works because Americans are deeply uncomfortable with death. We don’t like to think about it or talk about it. … As a result of that discomfort, reminding people of death sends them off the deep end, into the part of the neuronal pool where reason cowers behind existential terror.

And we’re particularly vulnerable to scaremongering in the atmosphere of dread created by the economic meltdown. When people are already scared about losing their jobs and their homes and paying for health care, it doesn’t take a lot to make them afraid of one more thing. …”The brain is signaling ‘danger’ right now. Whenever that happens, the brain typically loses its logical reasoning power.” …
[There is] confusion over a separate White House initiative: spending $1 billion to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for various diseases. Somehow that has morphed into cost (rather than medical) effectiveness. That is, bureaucrats will decide if it is worth treating you based on some calculation about the value of your life or health.
It’s not in any of the bills. But the rationing lie sticks for two reasons. One is that people who should know better keep repeating it. … The second reason is that the idea of rationing triggers anxiety about the loss of some cherished American ideals … “The idea of the dedicated family doctor has been ingrained in the American imagination … We desperately want it, or want it back, and hold it as the ideal of the way things should be.” In this case, emotion–hope or nostalgia–rides roughshod over facts. …
Health care stirs powerful emotions, and because the subject is so complicated, people are unable to balance their emotional reactions with rational ones. Moreover, appeals to fear, anger, and hate really gain traction when ignorance is wide and deep. One of this summer’s iconic moments was when a man stood up at a town-hall meeting in South Carolina with Rep. Bob Inglis to demand that he “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” When some portion of the citizenry is ignorant of the fact that Medicare is run by the government, and lies, damned lies, and misleading statistics flourish, it is little wonder that we find ourselves in a summer of death panels.

Sources:

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Sharon Begley, Attack! The truth about Obamacare, Newsweek, August 15, 2009