Health care reform is a complex issue, but the economic facts are simple.
Without it everyone pays more, those with a major illness go bankrupt, the millions of uninsured are denied treatment and all the while the insurance and pharmaceutical companies get richer.
If the opponents, whose misinformation campaign strikes fear into older citizens and stops the debate, are successful, we will all pay for their irresponsible tactics. As the costs of health care skyrocket, everyone risks being priced out of quality health care.
Isn’t it curious that opponents of health care reform needed to transform an option to discuss an advance health care directive with our doctors into state-sponsored euthanasia?
Isn’t it also curious that the opponents say if we get health care reform, big government will stand between the patients and the doctor, determining what can be done? Today’s reality is that Big Insurance stands between the patient and the doctor, approving or denying treatment. How often have you heard the refrain, “Insurance companies need to be sued for practicing medicine without a license?”
We need health care reform to provide affordable, accessible health care for everyone. Reform must include a public health insurance option paid for with premiums and subsidized for only the lowest-income persons. Public health insurance would introduce a healthy competition that health insurance businesses need to provide better coverage at a reasonable cost.
If opponents had the facts on their side, they wouldn’t need a campaign of misinformation to defeat health care reform. The facts don’t support them.
We need health care reform. We need it now.
Mary Orr
Davenport
