Unfortunately, I'm one of those that have friends who were not treated correctly in the U.S. health care system, and my reports come from friends and family, and not the media. However, I don't want to generalize from examples, so therefore I will not present them.
We have seen enough anecdotal information for a lifetime during the course of the last year's "debate" -- in many cases, even THOSE turned out to be exaggerated or downright incorrect.
From the outset, all I ever wanted to see was an honest, legitimate debate. What we got was the absolute opposite.
One commentator I listened to a lot was Dr. Aaron Carroll, who holds himself out as a "healthcare economist". I probably heard him speak a total of 20 or more hours during the course of the legislative process. His agenda was absolutely clear to me -- support the Obama agenda, no matter what. Yet, ever since passage, he has been walking back his positions about how great the legislation will be. Dr. Carroll had absolute command of the facts on this subject, but was able to twist them prior to passage to always make the case. Now, he's twisting them in the same manner to lower expectations.
Unfortunately, the nature of the argument is political. And always will be. Should we, Americans, cave to the extremist pressure to move further toward socialized medicine (remembering that we're already half way there)? Or should we resist on the basis that our current system provides better health care than the socialist systems in other countries around the world?
The fight reminds me of the TV show "American Chopper" on a much larger scale. |
