Health Care: Fear and Confusion
By Jeffrey Page
Here’s what I discovered at a packed public meeting on health care reform Monday night in Greenwood Lake.
First off, a large majority of those attending oppose the current proposed changes.
Second, there was a lot of misinformation, some genuine, some for effect. The host, Assemblyman Greg Ball, who wants to unseat Rep. John Hall next year, called for civility but at no time in the first hour did he step in to correct even the most blatant misstatements.
Not long after Ball’s message about civility, a woman brandished a sign declaring: “Pelosi’s doctor should implant a tongue depressor and wire her jaw!!” Which was no less civil than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s idiotic likening of some critics of health care reform to Nazis, a claim that infuriated any fair minded person.
A man said, “I resent the administration’s comparing me to a brown shirt or a Nazi.” This was an artful way of slandering President Obama because neither he nor anyone else in his administration made any such comparison. Pelosi of course is not in the administration.
People sounded angry, confused and scared, but mostly angry especially with Obama. One man unhelpfully called the current proposals an “obamination.”
“Your postal clerk will be your doctor,” another man said.
The words “socialized medicine” were used a lot. A man asked, “What is socialism?” and answered himself that under socialism you must justify the air you breathe. Then he said “socialism is worse then slavery” and quickly backtracked to stick in the disclaimer “as evil as slavery was.” Socialism doesn’t give a damn about people, he said, but at least in slavery the owners were concerned about the health of the owned and thus made sure they were well-fed and clothed.
We were told that “elitists” promoting health care reform want the rest of us to drive around in fuel efficient cars as they travel in SUVs and private jets. The elitists were never identified. Still, there were cheers.
A man said the actress Suzanne Somers was from Canada and can attest to the failings of the Canadian national health system because she and several members of her family have suffered with cancer. But Somers was born and brought up in San Bruno, Calif.
We were informed that government control of health care delivery will allow bureaucrats to kill old people, kill special needs people, kill premature babies, kill the sick.
Then came the line that the government can’t run the DMV but wants to control our health. Health care reform would put clerks and bureaucrats in charge. The DMV may make the final decisions on your health care and it could be a postal clerk who’ll be your doctor, sell you a sheet of stamps, a $25 money order and an appendectomy.
A major fear is the business about “death panels” being spread by Sarah Palin. Hers is the shameless lie that really scares the hell out of some older people: The government will decide when you’ve had enough treatment and pull the plug.
A man who said he suffers with pancreatic cancer, heart disease and diabetes – and who, by the way, says he’s 90 to 95 percent satisfied with his Medicare – said he doesn’t want government involved in his end-of-life decisions.
Some people were concerned that reform will subsidize health insurance for illegal aliens, but Hall says in his web site that the proposals specifically prohibit this.
Several other people called for tort reform but failed to address the question of what happens when they go for a kidney transplant and the surgeon removes the wrong kidney.
Some other things I learned were that a preponderance of the crowd were older people – I’m one of them – with concerns about what will happen to Medicare should health care reform come to pass. Obama puts the cost of reform at $1 trillion over 10 years. Does Medicare funding get reduced to pay for total reform? And if so, what happens to the quality of older people’s health care?
This issue is so complicated, so politically charged and ultimately so important that we have to slow things down. President Obama may want quick Congressional action but he can’t have it. Not when it’s clear that 300 million Americans need more time to understand what reform is about.
Hall wasn’t at Greenwood Lake. It was Ball’s political show.
But if these two guys want to be helpful, it’s time to stop playing to the converted. We need Hall and Ball to talk with each other. A Hall-Ball debate should be in a quiet room. It should be televised. It ought to have no moderator but just two men swearing to stick to the truth.
Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com
Tags: Jeffrey Page
August 20th, 2009 at 12:10 am
The sad truth in all of the things you’ve mentioned, Jeffrey, is that the debate isn’t about health care. In the end, it’s about money. Up until now insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies have been able to make giant profits. That’s their goal; it’s the way the companies are designed to work. It’s the nature of the beast. The only way for them to earn money is to deny care or raise the prices. Nothing is stopping them from doing either.
The scary truth is that if we allow any group of similar industries or organizations to gain this kind of power, they would also be able to manipulate the public just as the health ins. and pharma. companies are doing right now. Or is that already happening? Did Congress, for example, ever declare war (as required in the Constitution) in any of the most recent “military actions?” Or, as the “bosses” of our Congressional representatives, were you or I ever consulted when Congress voted themselves a raise?
Unfortunately, in America today it isn’t about doing a good job, negotiating with enemies, keeping people healthy or telling the truth. It’s all about money.