All the protests over health care reform reminded me of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”:
There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clearThere’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware (in this case, it’s the protesters with the guns)
I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down…What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side…Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
It strikes me as deeply ironic that all the hoo-ra, gun toting, macho men of the right are the ones who are just so SCARED right now. What they are afraid of, I’m not really sure, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t actually have anything to do with health care. And the fears they CLAIM are related to health care are related to things that aren’t even being proposed. No one has proposed: socialized medicine, single-payer health care, death panels, taking away your health coverage if you like what you have now, government takeover of health care, rationing of health care, deepening the federal deficit. Basically, this reform will only affect you if you are unhappy with your current insurance or currently uninsured.
It will do things like: keep your insurer from denying you care based on what they call a “preexisting condition,” keep your insurer from kicking you out of your insurance policy when you finally need real care, cut down on the amount of paperwork and haggling between you and your insurer and your health care provider, provide subsidies to people who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to secure their own private insurance, encourage more employers to provide health coverage to their workers, and raise the income standards so more people can qualify for Medicaid.
I’m really hoping we get a public option, though it’s looking less likely, but even if we did, it’s an option, a government run insurance program exactly like something we already have now: the health insurance the government provides to federal employees. Far from destroying the free market, this might actually help CREATE a free market, by injecting some competition into an industry that is increasingly made up of monopolies. And it would be OPTIONAL.
When you lay the actual proposals bare, there’s very little room for paranoia and fear. But like the song goes, paranoia strikes deep.
erniebufflo's south & west kitchen 
The absolute craziest most irrational part about this health care thing is that THIS SYSTEM ALREADY EXISTS. It’s how I get my health care as a military dependent. There are two versions. Prime, which is free care provided at military (government) owned locations by military (government) doctors. I can also see approved civilian providers for certain specialties, like my prenatal/maternity care at no cost. The second version is Standard, which is what my son is on, which means I get to choose the private doctors and pay a little out of pocket for the privilege of slightly faster, less bureaucratic care. Never, ever have I had a problem getting medical treatment when I needed it. I still have the option of choosing private insurance through my employer if I wanted – no one’s taking anything away.
Health care, to me, is what it should be for everyone – something I don’t struggle to afford. It doesn’t keep me up at night. I don’t worry about whether getting care is in my budget. I think if more people understood that the government has been running a successful health care system for years they would stop freaking the f*** out.
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They need to have people like you on the news! Like: I have government health care AND IT IS TEH AWESOME!
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The real problem is that with George Bush II in the White House, the right had their own America-saving, gun-toting, Saddam-busting savior. Now, the election of Barack Obama has shown that more Americans don’t subscribe to their view of things, and it scares them that there are so many of us. So, they are playing the “tyranny card,” stocking up on ammunition, and helping to spread innuendo and misinformation in the hopes of winning the American people back to their perverted view of “freedom and liberty,” which, bluntly put is: “Everyone is entitled to the freedoms we decide you should have.”
The strange part: not much has changed since Obama took the reins of power. There’s still a war going on overseas, the economic bailout is continuing, the recession is still with us, and all these things started with Bush.
I am disheartened. I feel like those of us who have a level head and some idea of the concept are being left at the altar, while America runs off with insanity and ignorance.
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