The Health Care Debate Is Not A Real Debate

The follow is a the complete comment I wrote for "McCain: "Scrap" Health Care Bill And Start Over" that appeared on June 16, 2009. I didn't post the complete comment there since it's so long however I did post the first few lines along with the url of this blog.

I'm getting tired of all the debate over health care reform
since everyone just keeps reciting the same words over and over again.

As far as I can see we have arguments from:

* Those with money who have insurance and can afford to use it. Most of them don't care about anyone else's health care and just want to keep
everything the same. They argue against doing anything to change the system
because it's working for them and they will lie to keep it.

* Then there are those who have health insurance but can't
always afford to use it. Some of them know they can't afford to go to the doctor
but keep their insurance in case of a major medical expense. Fortunately most of
them never need that major medical coverage however those that do find that with
all the things not covered either all their savings are gone or they have to
take bankruptcy to cover those uncovered costs. This group is divided on the
health care reform issues depending on how much they actually know about how the
health care system works and how blindly dedicated they are to their own
political affiliation. Those who know the real situation try to relay the truth.
Those who don't just repeat the words from their party leaders - truth or lies
is makes no difference because that's the party stand.

* And then there are those who have no insurance for 1 reason or another. These people don't show up as commenters very often since many don't have internet access, even those who are not homeless cannot afford phones or internet access. We only know about these people from news and commentaries and it's the views of the article writer that is stressed in the article not a broad representation of the group being written about. The representatives for this group usually have health care coverage and can afford to use it. This group is also divided in their stand on health care reform and don't always recite facts to support their opinion. They usually give examples of how our current health system is working or not working.

As for why I'm tired of the debate. Well, it reminds me of the Goldwater election just before we got into Viet Nam. Anti-Goldwater people kept
reciting, "A vote for Goldwater is a vote for war." Johnson defeated Goldwater
by a landslide since no one wanted a war in Viet Nam. Of course after Johnson
became president and we had a "military action" in Viet Nam and the few who had voted for Goldwater started reciting, "I guess the war's my fault since I voted for Goldwater and we have a war."

The same mindless rhetoric of that election is being used in this debate. No matter what happens it's a lose - lose situation. If we get "real" health care reform somebody must lose something. If we don't get "real"
health care reform another group will keep losing and this group is getting larger everyday in our current economy. And just like the Goldwater election somebody is going to be able to say, "I did/did not support a complete change in our health care system and our taxes went up."

I'm not going to give you examples of why I support a complete overhaul of our current health care system because it won't change anyone's mind. Instead I am asking that everyone find out the real facts before they repeat things that they can't prove as real facts. Don't just look for information supporting your opinion. Look for the facts and then base your opinion on what you find. If you can prove or disprove the current system is working for everyone in America let's see some facts from reliable sources that everyone will believe. Those are the types of comments we need to have a real debate and that's what is missing right now.

I wrote that comment because we all have our opinion now it's time to prove to other's we've made the right choice.

If you have any "real" proof that you've made the right choice please leave a comment and share it so we can all be aware of the provable facts.

Susan

P.S. Sorry about the choppy formating but I had trouble getting the Blogger editor to work with me.