Health Care: my two cents

[I don't mean for my blog to be political, but I've gotta vent on this one.]

I am infuriated by how the health care debates are going. The shameful lies and violent argument tactics employed by those who oppose reform are completely counter-productive, preventing intelligent discourse and transmission of information.

Where does one even begin with such a mess?

I believe that health care reform is needed. Insurance companies are greedy and have been screwing patients over by denying them coverage for pre-existing conditions, or dropping their coverage in case of serious illness. Am I the only one who thinks that these are precisely the situations in which health insurance providers should step up and give support? It appears that health insurance companies are happy to collect people's premiums and promise health care as long as it's unneeded, but the instant people really, really do need medical care, the insurance companies split. How does that make any kind of sense?

I think that Obama's plan is a good one, targeting these and other loopholes insurance companies have abused to dupe the public. Americans will get affordable, reliable health care, especially when they need it, without discrimination or irresponsible price gouging. The really beautiful thing is that this plan is going to kill two birds with one stone. American health care will be improved. And since the current health care system is so expensive and dysfunctional that it's dragging down the entire economy, removing this dead weight will vastly improve the fiscal side of things.

Basically, everyone wins with this plan, except for the insurance companies and people who receive financial support from them. And, my God, these people are making a fuss! How selfish of them. They're perfectly content to live their luxurious lives, even if it means the entire country suffers for their bliss. Further, these gluttons audaciously attempt to convince Americans that maintaining the defective status quo is in their best interest. The most shocking, unfair, and insulting part is that they're succeeding.

The blatant lies these people have spread are appalling. No wonder the administration waited so long before attending to the fallacious statements: they must have felt, as I do, that such ridiculous propaganda could never take hold in the minds of intelligent individuals. Apparently we were wrong. I want to know who started the rumor that the new plan will encourage, nay, require euthanasia for the old and infirm. This plan is supported by AARP. I am quite certain they have read the plan, know what it says, and would never support anything that threatened their population. Then there are the statements that the new plan will bankrupt the country, when it's the current system that is hurting the economy, a situation that reform will remedy. Here's one of the few times I will ever quote Sarah Palin in earnest: "Quit makin' stuff up!" The whole discussion has become a matter of telling truth from fiction, with one side saying "X will happen, and Y will not!" while the other side disagrees: "X will not happen, and Y will!" People will probably agree with speakers they are more familiar with, or whom they find more entertaining, regardless of their reliability. No wonder people are confused. At this point, it seems that in order to get any unbiased facts, people have to go to the primary source, the bill itself, and read the damn thing, which I'm sure is no easy task.

Here I see a failure of the media. I believe that one of their duties is to simplify the complex workings of the government and truthfully and without bias present this information to the public. Major failure in that.

Finally, I am disappointed in the behavior of the American people. A willingness to be sheep, to unthinkingly adhere to the ideology and follow the commands of overtly biased icons, does not become us, especially when this behavior leads to disruptive yelling and violence at meetings that were intended to clarify the matter at hand by simply presenting information and having civil discussion.

Sure, gossip and controversy and hype are fun, but let's leave those things to Hollywood, where the fate of a country does not hang in the balance.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/