Sunday, August 16, 2009

Health Care, Pass it on

What follows is a health care e-mail (forwarded and forwarded etc.) I received followed by a response which I returned as a reply all. All capitalization and overuse of exclamation marks is original. And the twisting of the truth goes on....

Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 8:02 AM
Subject: Fwd: FINALLY. THE $64,000 ? WAS ASKED

FINALLY...THE $64,000 QUESTION WAS ASKED...
YESTERDAY ON "ABC-TV" (BETTER KNOWN AS THE ALL BARRACK CHANNEL) DURING THE "NETWORK SPECIAL ON HEALTH CARE".... OBAMA WAS ASKED:
(Picture of President Obama in Interview)
"MR. PRESIDENT WILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GIVE UP YOUR CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROGRAM AND JOIN THE NEW 'UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAM' THAT THE REST OF US WILL BE ON ????"..... (BET YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER)...
THERE WAS A STONEY SILENCE AS OBAMA IGNORED THE QUESTION AND CHOSE NOT TO ANSWER IT !!!...
IN ADDITION, A NUMBER OF SENATORS WERE ASKED T HE SAME QUESTION AND THERE RESPONSE WAS..."WE WILL THINK ABOUT IT."
AND THEY DID. IT WAS ANNOUNCED TODAY ON THE NEWS THAT THE "KENNEDY HEALTH CARE BILL" WAS WRITTEN INTO THE NEW HEALTH CARE REFORM INITIATIVE ENSURING THAT CONGRESS WILL BE 100% EXEMPT !
SO, THIS GREAT NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN THAT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND I... IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR OBAMA, HIS FAMILY OR CONGRESS...?? WE (THE AMERICAN PUBLIC) NEED TO STOP THIS PROPOSED DEBACLE ASAP !!!!... THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG !!!!!
PERSONALLY, I CAN ONLY ACCEPT A UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL THAT EXTENDS TO EVERYONE... NOT JUST US LOWLY CITIZENS... WHILE THE WASHINGTON "ELITE" KEEP RIGHT ON WITH THEIR GOLD-PLATED HEALTH CARE COVERAGES.
IF YOU AGREE PLEASE PASS THIS O N ....IF NOT PLAN TO SUFFER WITH THE OBAMA HEALTH CARE PLAN ...FOR FREE.... WHILE OUR SELF-SERVING POLITICIANS MAKE SURE THAT THEY TAKE CARE OF THEIR BUTTS AT OUR EXPENSE.

My response:

Dear (deleted),

Please pass this back along the forwarding route.

I believe that under the plan proposed there is a public option (or should be) for those who DO NOT HAVE ACCESS to any other healthcare from their employer or cannot afford health care. Do any of you fall into that category? Congress does not (Although my congressman does not take the plan currently offered congress because he has a better plan already.)

But the real question $128,000 question has been asked and not answered by those opposed to health care reform. It was asked by a guy from Canada in one of the nasty blog discussions that I followed. "If single payer universal health in Canada (or Sweden or the UK or... pick your place) is so horrible, then why aren't there mobs of people calling for the heads of the legislature... or even any legislation proposed that they return to privately controlled plans? We are talking about democracies folks.

So maybe the problem is not who gets what but how much of the truth we hear after the information is twisted and distorted by the insurance lobbying groups. They are the only ones who will lose here.

I attended a local town hall meeting. Lies went unchallenged. Civil Discourse was repressed. The news covered the man who cried about how his tax money would go to "killing babies." This is untrue. The Hyde act prohibits it. The news coverage didn't mention that. The news coverage also did not cover the woman who told of her sister, gainfully employed with great health insurance she was laid off. She found a new job but had to buy her own insurance. She was wiling to pay anything. But she is a Type 1 Diabetic. No one will insure her.

The first speaker said that he knew of no one that had not access to health care. Probably true. He lives in a privileged world where that is probably true. But 40% of Americans are without health care. Whether they can't afford it, are gambling that they won't need it or can't get it due to a pre-existing condition we all pay for this. Many of these people use the Emergency Room as their primary care physician. This is the most costly and least efficient health care. We all pay for this in increased cost of care, increased cost of insurance or, in rare cases, in the inability to use an ER for what it is really intended. Even of that only cost a few lives a year, that's a few lives too many.

So while we go on without adequate health insurance in our country some are using scare tactics, half-truths and lies to stonewall progress. Most of these people are hapless shills of organized lobbying by groups that they don't know about and would be aghast if they realized what they were doing.

And, yes we need torte reform too so that Doctors can avoid ridiculous insurance costs and they should be paid at level commensurate with their skill and education. The money that is going to health insurance should be going to health care.

Neil Houghton

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Neil Houghton
3873 Rush Mendon Road
Mendon, NY 14506

My blog: http://nhoughton.blogspot.com/

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