The debate about health care reform has possibly been more public than any other legislation in the history of our country.
The media, for the most part, has failed to report on what is actually in the bill. They are failing to do their jobs as journalists and are doing a much better job of giving President Obama free support. Citizens still found ways to learn what is in the bill and they showed up to congressional town halls this summer and asked the questions that only the conservative media have been asking. To the surprise of the Democratic leadership, people were angry, but instead of listening to their opinions, they downplayed the outrage.
Nancy Pelosi lead the attack against the town hall-goers – most of whom had said they have never done anything political before – by calling them un-American in an op-ed article for USA Today. Ironically, when it was the Republican administration that was being criticized, it was patriotic to question the government, according to Hillary Clinton in 2008. These citizens are mad at being lied to by politicians, but also fearful of what might happen if the health care reform bills are passed in their current state.
Having a public option is the principle issue in the current bills. President Obama says it will create healthy competition, but in reality, a business that needs to make a profit cannot compete with the federal government that does not have to. He has since backed off this issue some and is now proposing that it only be applied in certain states where there is little competition.
The mandates of the bill also scare many Americans. Employers would be forced to insure all their employees or pay high taxes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but this would drive many small businesses that can’t afford to insure their employees out of business. Individuals would also be taxed under the current plan for not having health care.
One of the misconceptions about the bill Americans feel lied to about is that President Obama says we can keep our current insurance. But page 16 of the thousand-page house bill seems to make individual plans illegal.
From the time this bill takes effect, anyone with an individual plan will not be able to change it or get a new one because they will no longer be available. And once the public option has put private companies out of business many years from now, and we will have a system like that of Great Britain and Canada and nobody will have their current insurance plan.
On Aug. 8, President Obama said there are 46 million uninsured Americans, but last week he said there are only 30 million. So where did that 16 million go in a month? The fact is that the first number was uninsured Americans in 2007 included illegal aliens and those who did not list that they were insured on census data.
According to the Heritage Foundation, the 30 million number is not much better, because of those who cannot afford health insurance. There are 15.6 million Americans that cannot afford health care and are not eligible for Medicaid. Changing his story is almost an admission of lying.
The lesson we need to learn is that we can’t just rush into massive legislation that affects 17 percent of the economy. The Democrats need to involve the Republicans, other than just our Maine senators, so the best bill for America is written. Health care reform is also not what we need.
We need health insurance reform. Nobody in America has a problem getting health care. They have a problem paying for it. For legislation that does not take effect until 2013, we can afford to wait and get it right, especially since so many aspects of it are controversial.
