CITIZEN’S ALERT: Speak- Don’t Shout

By Eddie Griffin

Friday, August 07, 2009

I am as interested as anyone in the Healthcare Reform bill, but I cannot get any answers because too many people are shouting. Let us hear the issue. Then let us speak our minds.



We want to be heard also, not drowned out by mindless, disrespectful chanting. What I have seen so far of this Recess Rally is a lot of shouting, and no clear answers. No one is allowed to speak. There is an atmosphere of intimidation, apprehension, and fear. This is not good for America. After all, there are two sides to the issue: Those who have access to healthcare and those who do not.

There are those who have health insurance already, and access to doctors and the best medical care. There are those who do not. These are the ones who show up in the emergency rooms of hospitals every day, about ready to die, with no health coverage.

Why should those who have shout out those who have not?

Those who attend these public forums are the ones who already have health coverage. But they have been misled to believe that allowing coverage for the uninsured poor is going to destroy them. Is it wrong to advocate for the uninsured poor?

The bill clearly states that a person can keep what they have. If they have insurance coverage they are pleased with, they can keep it. If they have a doctor they are pleased with, then they can keep their family and personal physicians. These luxuries and privileges are not afforded to all Americans.

People must be sensitive to both sides.

What the Obama administration recognizes is the cost of healthcare is tied up with health insurance costs. If anyone has noticed, insurance costs keep going up, and premiums keep rising, and will continue to rise if not checked.

The federal health insurance option offers a competitive rate insurance plan, for those who subscribe. The plan would offer more affordable coverage, which will reduce the cost of small business owners who provides medical coverage (in part or in whole) to their employees. For those who lose their jobs in this economic downturn, the government insurance program may be a better and cheaper option than post-employment COLA coverage.

There is the marginally employed, whose employer provide them with no health coverage. They are unable themselves to earn enough to pay for a health insurance in the current market. Maybe a government insurance policy would be affordable for them. Although it may be the Cadillac plan people are now so afraid of losing. Any healthcare is good healthcare for those who have been medically neglected.

If the insurance of the rich covers cosmetic surgery and the poor does not have the option, this is not a matter of disparity. It is a matter of choice.

Subtitle B-Public Health Insurance Option, Sec. 221(a): For years beginning with Y1, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall provide for the offering of an “Public Health Insurance Option” that insures (1) choice; (2) competition; and (3) stability of affordable, high quality coverage throughout the United States.

Now what is wrong with this plan? And where, in the bill, is it falling short?

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