Dear readers,
Health care reform is on the news every night, in the newspaper every day. Pundits argue back and forth about the issues and the solutions, but they never seem to agree. Experts cite surveys and studies, but those numbers are only trustworthy in certain situations. Facts are chosen carefully by TV personalities: Chris Matthews and Glenn Beck will invariably pick different statistics to add imaginary weight to whatever argument they happen to be spewing that night. It’s sickening.
I spent hours trying to find some concrete information to formulate an argument about health care. Should premium costs differentiate significantly by age? Should college students stay on their parents’ plans for a few years after graduation? How much interference should the federal government have? What does a public option really mean for the “Joe Six-Packs” of the country?
But after reading through what felt like a novel’s worth of articles on websites from Reuters to USA Today and consulting the list of facts from the National Coalition on Health Care, I could only reach one conclusion:
I know nothing about what it’s going to take to fix the health care system.
The subject is enormous; it’s overwhelming at best. I was ready to pull my hair out after a passing glance at the issue’s core, and these Congressmen and women need to read, analyze and critique thousands of pages of details when a bill is introduced.
So how is it that I can still argue so vehemently against additional years of our current system? How can I be so staunchly in support of change when I don’t even know all the problems and can’t offer one holistic solution?
It’s because I know we have a broken system. I know there are an estimated 47 million Americans out there that don’t have health care and many times more that say they’re paying too much. I know college graduates who are desperately looking for a job not only because they need to make a living, but also because their parents’ health care plan no longer provides them coverage. I know this is the greatest country in the world when it comes to the quality of patient care, but only for those who can afford it.
Health care isn’t a constitutional right, but it should be. How does it make sense that everyone in this country can own a gun, but they can’t consult a doctor when they’re sick or visit the emergency room when they’re cut and bleeding without having to consider the consequences on their bank account?
Of course medical care can’t be free, but it shouldn’t cause 62 percent of our nation’s bankruptcies, as it did in 2007. I understand that medicine is still a business and that there are people who would take advantage of a generous system, but something needs to change when nearly every American citizen is only one extended illness or injury away from financial ruin.
So quiet down, Democrats who tell Republicans, “The change is easy, just do this and this and this.” Zip those lips, Sarah-Palin supporters who spout fallacies of “death panels” and whine that the government is trying to kill your grandmother. There is no comfortable fix. A perfect system without exceptions is impossible; an unlucky percentage will fall through the cracks every time.
Each side must make some concessions and reach a compromise. If that’s a public option with the possibility of states to opt out and make their own legislation, as the Senate’s most recent proposed bill dictates, so be it. A decision must be made, and it needs to happen soon.
It’s hard to grasp such a widespread issue; it creates anxiety and results in the irrational, heated debates we see on television and in town meetings. But there is no time for confrontation: bipartisanship through mediation and understanding is the only way every American citizen will get the affordable health care they deserve.
Cameron Kittle
Executive Editor
