I went to a Public Forum on Health Care Reform

I decided to go to a public forum on Health Care reform to take a look for myself. I was disturbed by television news depiction of these public forums.

There seems to be deficiencies on both sides of this issue.

First, some voters I had a chance to talk to were swearing there were Mandatory requirements about “end of life” elements in this bill. So I asked myself if the writers of the bill were trying to slip one in on us or if something else was happening.

(I urge you to verify all that you hear or read in the media, including on this blog. And I encourage you to make a comment.)

So I went here to learn more

The Truth About Health Care

It seems as though there are well intentioned folks misreading the language of the bill. Or maybe there are mean spirited folk purposely twisting the truth trying to add confusion and fear into this process. Either way, I could not find the word “Mandatory” anywhere on page 425, or related to the topics covered there. The word Suicide or anything that implying it was not to be found there either.

Here is the text of the bill:

The actual bill

You should read it yourself.

More about the public forum, I was overwhelmed by the screaming and interruptions by opponents of this bill. I am not saying these people oppose health care reform. I did get the impression they wanted some kind of reform, but they were not discussing reform. They were attacking my representative, screaming, no chanting that he worked for them. I would like to inject that he works for all of us and must balance the wishes of those who want to pass this at all costs with those who want it to fail on partisan or philosophical grounds as well as with those who actually wish to discuss how to make this system better.

My intention here is not to support this specific bill’s language or to reject it outright. I personally like some aspects of this bill and wish to have other elements removed. I would ask my neighbor how his or her ideas fit into which of those categories. We will get nothing done if all we do is make an effort to scream louder than our neighbors. This process is devolving into Bully Politics.

We must learn to participate in a constructive way. We must voice positive solutions to our VERY REAL problems.

Americans pay three times what everyone else pays for prescription medicine. I would ask, "Why?" Are we subsidizing what the rest of the world pays or is their government picking up the difference with that country’s tax money? I don’t know, but I would like to know. And then discuss how or if we wish to change the way we do things. Why do some people scream about their taxes being too high but they see getting charged 300% of what everyone else pays as fair? I don’t understand that. Why are we always shooting ourselves in the foot over political philosophy?

Sixty percent of those who filed bankruptcy last year did so because of catastrophic medical expenses. Eighty percent of those had health insurance before they got sick. They got too sick to work and lost their health insurance. This can be fixed. We need to talk about how. I don’t hear this conversation taking place. This could happen to you. And when it does your children and grandchildren will regress economically because you have lost your economic foundation all due to holding on to a stubborn political philosophy.

The other thing that bothers me is the condescending attitude of some of my neighbors, “that the people that do not have health insurance do not have it because they do not work, because they are lazy.” Then my neighbors ask, “Why should I pay for their health insurance?” I would say to my neighbors that we all pay less when we are all contributing. How we get to the point of universal coverage can be reached in different ways. We need to discuss how we can reach that goal. Is every way of doing this a socialized approach? I don’t think it has to be.

I personally am not opposed to having a public option. It will not necessarily create the only option available to us. And its creation will not force Corporate Insurance providers out of business. (I know... we could argue this point alone for months to come.) It will most likely compel competition. It will, without a doubt, put downward pressure on service costs. What’s wrong with that? What it so patriotic about allowing corporate America to squeeze every last penny out of our pockets in the name of Political Philosophy?

The market place provides competition, I agree. Government, on the other hand provides regulation from allowing the power of corporate giants to smash us with their greed. We need both government and business. Allowing business to control the market place is no better than allowing government to stifle or replace the market place. If there is a government option it will have to compete with business. Greed and tyranny do need to be kept in check.

I am not standing behind any kind of government program that takes anything away from those who like things the way they are. I am, however advocating that we change things to fix problem areas. We can do this and we need to voice our opinions about how we can do this, not simply object to the solutions others have proposed.

Go to a public forum on health care reform and voice your constructive opinion. If all you’re going to do is complain, whine and disrupt the meeting I suggest you stay home and scream at your television.

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