Health care.
The combination of those two words is enough to start an argument amongst people who are best friends these days.
Because of this phenomenon, it looks like we’re going to go yet another year without health care reform, which scares the hell out of me.
I wish people in this country would wake up and realize that access to health care is a right. Plain and simple.
No one should ever skip a visit to the doctor because they can’t afford it.
I’m sure some would argue with me that people on the lower end of the wealth spectrum could get it if they wanted it (which isn’t really true), and you don’t want to have to pay for their mistakes (even if they haven’t made any).
But what about all those hard-working Americans that actually do have health insurance, but can’t get their companies to cover certain illnesses for some reason? Do those people, too, deserve to be left out in the cold?
I don’t think so.
At the beginning of the summer, President Obama presented his health care plan. Within what seemed like hours, there were already massive movements to thwart his efforts.
Opponents of the plan billed these movements as enormous grassroots efforts, but they weren’t. Most of them were started by the Republican leadership in conjunction with the health care lobby. I have no problem with companies or politically affiliated individuals fighting against something they don’t agree with.
I do, however, have a problem with them disguising their true motives.
And there is a real danger when those motives are disguised: people actually believe this is a grassroots movement, when it is in fact a corporate sponsored one.
It made me so angry when I saw people who I usually consider intelligent change their Facebook statuses to talk about the supposed facts of the health care reform act.
The supposed grassroots movement also supplied the massed with talking points. The most commonly used scare tactic was that the government was going to kill grandma.
That was completely and totally false. Let me repeat that: completely and totally false. It was a scare tactic – one that has been frighteningly successful.
Even Republican leadership is taking part in the fear mongering.
Rep. Eric Cantor’s Web site had files explaining how the reform would affect Congressional Districts across the country, and that intrigued me. There was no way the facts he presented could be unslanted, right?
Right.
Cantor put together his facts based on studies by a group owned by one of the largest private health insurance companies in the country.
Not exactly unbiased.
It seems that every time health care reform is brought up, the same thing happens. And that’s why we’re in the same situation as we have been for a long time.
I would imagine almost everyone sees the need for health care reform, but not everyone agrees on how to get there. And that’s good.
But when Congressional Republicans are laying scare tactics out there as if they were facts, it prevents any discussion from happening.
So, while I don’t have all the answers and neither does anyone else, we need real discussion. Obama’s plan isn’t perfect – I’m the first to admit it. However, its passage would be a step up from where we are today.
Our health care system is no longer acceptable, and we need reform.
Those are the facts. Let’s go from there.
Pat Oldendorf is a junior English major from Lockport. He is the Scout editor-in-chief.
Direct comments, questions and other responses to poldendorf@mail.bradley.edu.
