Stop Lying and Listen

In a one of a kind event, Republican Representative Joe Wilson was recently censured for an outburst he had during President Obama’s address to the nation Wednesday night. President Obama said under his health care plan that illegal immigrants will not be able to get medical aid with his new plan, and Rep. Wilson screamed “You lie!” Rep. Wilson was the first representative to ever be censured for an act like this. In an ironic turn of events, however, it turns out that President Obama was indeed lying. Because hospitals are not allowed to ask to see anyone’s green card, any illegal can walk right into a hospital and receive aid at no cost. Two nights after his speech, the House began talks about the fact that health care employees could not ask a citizen’s status and this was key to the President saying illigals could not get health care . Every amendment that republicans have written to ensure that illigal aliens are not provided for in this bill has been shot down by the democrats.

As I’m sure many of you now know, health care reform is grounds for one of the nation’s biggest debates. The most talked about, and probably largest, issue is the public option. While democrats are for it, republicans and most independents are strongly against it. For those of you who do not know, the public option is essentially the government offering insurance to any American at a lower premium than the current insurance companies can offer. The fear of this is that by offering insurance to Americans at low cost subsidized rates, the insurance companies could go out of business because they simply cannot compete.

When asked what she thought of the public option, junior Kelsey Zellner stated, “It can be effective if it is offered to lower class people who can not afford insurance but are working hard to be able to, for a limited time. Also, it should be given to children of poorer families because it is not their fault their parents are poor.” Impoverished children are already receiving government health care and while I do agree that health care should be given to children of poor families, I do not think it should be given to any adults except for the elderly and disabled. It is not the government’s job to “hand out” anything to the people of this country. As a matter of fact, we do not let people die in the streets. Anyone who goes to the emergency room cannot be turned away because they cannot pay.

I completely disagree with how the Obama administration is handling health reform. The concept of changing a system that works for over 85% of America’s population is unfathomable to most Americans. According to the Congressional Budget Office (the government nonpartisan agency) the nation will pay an estimated trillion dollars or more over ten years. Sure, the premiums insurance companies charge now are out of control, but we should fix that. We should not try to redo the whole system just because 10% of the population does not have health care. Some of the 10% do not even want health care, so the actual number of uninsured because of cost is even lower.

In 1955 when Medicare was first established, it was estimated to only cost 23 billion dollars by 2003; in 2003 it cost an astounding 245 billion dollars, an unprecedented 10 times more than what was estimated. If that same model is any indication of the current estimated price of a trillion dollars over 10 years, by 2019 the cost of health reform will actually be 10 trillion dollars! To compare, the United States is 11 trillion dollars in debt today. If we tack on 10 trillion dollars to that number, in 2019 the United States will be 21 trillion dollars in debt. Where in the world is this money going to come from? We simply cannot trust government figures under any circumstances.

Now, this is not to say that I am against health reform completely, just the way it is being handled as of late. If the public option was removed, critics would be way more likely to support the bill, especially if it was a bipartisan effort, not some left wing agenda slapped together in a hurry to get something finished. If the House and Senate could work together and create a bill that included tort reform, capping of premiums, and did not cost the nation trillions, many would back it whole heartedly.

“Government should help increase competition among large drug corporations by helping to lower costs on medications and insurance premiums,” stated junior David Dornette. When asked if he liked reform without the public option he replied, “It would be something I could agree on.” I completely agree with this statement. The government should help, but in a way that does not give them control of anything else or cost the tax payers anymore money. I work hard for my money and I do not want to have to give it away.

Americans should not have to go without health care, but they should have to work hard and not expect a nanny state. This is a principal that was in effect in the 1700’s when the original immigrants fled their home countries to prosper in the new world, and should still be in effect today. Health reform is a true test for the United States government, and I think with hard work and bipartisanship that they can please the American public and have a sense of satisfaction themselves.