L.C. Democrats: The truth about health care reform

For almost a year, the health care debate has raged on. Democrats and Republicans have fought bitterly over the topic, and as this has gone on, the health care system fails more and more Americans every day. Americans are putting off much-needed care to avoid high health care costs, they are losing their homes because of outrageous health care bills and, in some cases, citizens are dying because of insufficient care (about 45,000 a year according to a Harvard study). Because of this, Congress can no longer delay what could be the most important issue of our time and must deliver a unified bill to the Oval Office.

But Republicans want the plan to be torn up and for the House and the Senate to “start over.” What they are really trying to do is kill health care reform and destroy any chance of the President and the Democrats in Congress of solving this crisis. Or, as Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina described it, “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” For almost a year, the GOP has attacked health care reform in an unrelenting smear campaign that has attempted to send the American people into a frenzy of fear and hate over health reform. But what is the truth about health care reform?

To start off, the Republicans are consistently making claims that the plan is going to be a government takeover of the health care system. The reality is that nowhere in either bill is it stated that you cannot choose your own coverage or doctor. Bureaucrats will not make decisions about your health; you and your doctor will still be making those decisions.

Conservatives have also lied about the supposed death panels that will decide if terminally ill patients will live or die. There will be no death panels. There never has been and there never will be death panels in the plan. This lie was created by former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey and former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, who coined the phrase “death panels.” As the President has said before, “No one is going to pull the plug on Grandma.”

Many Americans also have their concerns about the cost of health care reform but, once again, the right has tried to manipulate the American public. Yes, there will be an initial investment. But if you read the Obama Plan, you will find that the plan will actually cut the national deficit by over a trillion dollars in the next 20 years. This is not even considering the economic side effects of the plan that will put many Americans and businesses in much better financial situations in the future.

If health care reform passes, all Americans will be rewarded. We will cover 31 million Americans who were not covered before. Health insurance premiums will drop for all Americans. More Americans will be healthier because of better preventive care. We will all receive more choices in health insurance because of new regulation allowing people to cross state lines to purchase insurance. All Americans will receive more efficient care because of reductions in waste and abuse. And we will finally control the skyrocketing costs to the federal deficit.

But if we do not act on this opportunity, the American health care crisis will wreak havoc on the economy. The deficit will become uncontrollable. More Americans will sink into extreme debt because of health care disasters. More business will cut health benefits and jobs because of health care costs. And worst of all, more Americans will die from conditions that would have normally been preventable with proper treatment that they could not afford.