Health Care Reform

Health care reform. It's the big debate surrounding all of us, and has been ongoing for the past 3 or 4 months (maybe longer). People either want it to move forward and finally happen, while others are staunchly opposed to it.

Consider me on the side of health care reform. I have been for a while now, even before Barack Obama took office and made this one of his prime focuses. It's something that I feel this country has been long overdue for. To me, universal health care is something we as a country should have had at least two decades ago. Yet so many people have rallied against the notion of it; even today, people turn out in droves to oppose it. But why?

Well, my understanding of the situation is that people are afraid that the national debt will grow even larger and that our taxes will increase. These people also believe that the quality of our health care will deteriorate as a result, in an effort to save money. And even more people out there simply do not like the fact that our health care would be in the hands of the government, saying that certain "rules" or "regulations" would be put on things, thus miring things even more.

Let's try to break this down into parts, shall we?

Firstly, the national debt. As of this writing, the national debt is very close to approaching 12 trillion dollars. Upon looking at this, I admit, I almost shat myself. This staggering amount is unprecedented; just ten years ago, the debt was close to half that amount. Therefore, the main idea of spending more is simply disgraceful to opponents.

Consider this, however: in under nine years, between 2000 and 2008, our national debt rose by 5 trillion dollars. In that same amount of time, from 1990 to 1998, the debt rose only by 2 trillion dollars. Now, I can already hear some of you saying to yourselves, "Of course, we had a war to fight and an enemy to snuff after 9/11. That explains the major difference between the decades." While this is true, for the most part this was a very spend-friendly time for all the wrong reasons. Money went to national defense, yet soldiers were without some essential things, such as body armor and properly armored tanks. It also went to unnecessary tax rebates, which did little (if anything) to stimulate the economy for the short-term.

Yet now, our country is presented with something that can potentially benefit millions of people which would, at this point, set us back by 1 trillion dollars. And now, suddenly, THIS is the tipping point for conservatives; this, which could relieve people suffering both monetarily and physically from ailments. THIS is where people on the conservative side of things say, "Wait, hold on. Apply the brakes, Mr. President...we don't want to fit the bill for this." And frankly, it makes me sick.

One trillion dollars to initiate what could be a major step in the right direction for this country during a very hard time is but a drop in the bucket, as far as I'm concerned. What people who are on this side of the argument lack is the foresight to see that this could ultimately stimulate our economy, reduce the amount of foreclosures across the country and make America strong once again.

Which brings me to the second part I want to tackle: the fear of our health care deteriorating. One of the things I've heard repeatedly is how awful the universal health care elsewhere in the world is. Canada has long waits, the UK system is in shambles, and the French are, in fact, French, and we just don't want to be like them. So here’s my question to people clinging to this argument: Do you honestly think that we will be like them?

I had to endure so many people saying during the war in Iraq that America is the greatest country on Earth. That no one is better than the good ole US of A. Well...where's that chutzpa now? Now you think we'll suddenly not be so great because we'll have universal health care? Like you've all said, this is America; if we're so great of a nation as you believe, where's the faith that we would become the nation with the best nationalized health care system? Seriously. At this point in time, would we really want to emulate countries with flawed or failed systems?

To me, it sounds nothing more than belly-aching coming from people who feel we shouldn’t have to pay anything extra tax-wise. The main thing lacking here, again, is foresight; yes, taxes would rise to support this and yes, it can become an issue for people. However, in the next 5 to 10 years, there is the distinct possibility that these taxes would either disappear altogether or deteriorate over time.

So, I propose something. I encourage anyone out there reading this that are firmly against a universal health care program to please comment on this entry, and explain to me your reasons for being against it. However, I ask that you give me good, solid arguments defending your position.