“There is nothing seriously wrong with the US healthcare system.”

Count me as a no to start.

I hope you never get cancer in Canada Elliot. YOu might find yourself waiting for weeks on end for a radiation slot or chemo. But hey, don’t believe me, unlike you, I actually know whatI am talking about.

To represent your opinion as fact is simply not a starting point for a discussion. You’ve already drawn your conclusions, and you want others to endorse them. So why discuss it? You’re not approaching this in a way calculated to win anyone over to your point of view, which is at best contentious. A better starting point would be to acknowledge that people do disagree, look at the reasons why, and debate those reasons based on evidence.

How about this: We admit that US heathcare is seriously messed up providing lower quality care than other nations with universal coverage at costs far higher than those nations. We are powerless to change as long as we keep blaming the lawyers, our patients, the government, the insurance industry, or other doctors.

Having said that, a position is in fact quite different from the person. One can legitimately attack a person’s position on a topic as irrational, and point out potential conflicts in that position, without attacking the person themselves. That is ideally the nature of a debate. To depart from that is to descend to the polemic, and lower.

I read all three articles references in this post, and none of them make ad hominem attacks on Ezra Klein. They all question his credibility on the subject based on the assertions and arguments he made, and their attempts to refute them.

Dismissing the argument because of perceived bias, without actually engaging in the discussion at hand, is an ad hominem attack. Here is one defintition of argumentum ad hominen:

“Criticising a position by calling attention to irrelevant personal characteristics of someone who holds it.” – Such as their biases.

Wow. Discussion over. There are heretics in our midst.

Your endorsement of ad hominem attacks does strike a dissonant note, though. Could it be that a man of your undoubted genius would stoop to personal attacks? Doubtless there’s a reason I’m too simple to understand. If I didn’t know better, I’d suspect you might be afraid of learning that you were wrong.