Uncovering More Truth in the Great Health Care Debate!

An acquaintance of mine expressed her disgust with Saturday's house health care bill passage. She expressed her bitterness at "socialized medicine" and a future "Utopian/Socialized" nation upon the horizon at this "liberal" pace. I, of coarse, had different feelings on the subject, as I feel this was a huge victory for our nation! Never have we come so close to really reforming health care, and I feel that we are finally making steps in the correct direction! I reminded her that our nation has literally hundreds of "socialized" programs that nobody bats an eye at. The government currently funds such things as our highways, education, the military, police force, fire departments, food and safety standards, work force safety standards, and so on. She quickly responded with,

"...The government run health programs that are already in place are bankrupt, non efficient and riddled with corruption and fraud. And just in case you think government run health care is the way to go, hang out at Ben Taub, Parkland or any other county run hospital for a day and tell me how you like that."

At this response, I really started thinking. This must be what the right-wing really thinks! My, how misinformed so many Americans really are! First, let me start by saying that the government is in no way, shape, or form taking over hospitals. The government is simply trying to pass a bill with the Public Option. This would mean they are trying to get into the health care insurance business, which by the way, they are already in. Certain sectors of society already receive and enjoy the benefits of government insurance such as the VA and the elderly. And, the same people that are repeatedly debating against, voting against, and smearing the current health care bill that just passed the house, are the same people who currently enjoy government health insurance. If government insurance really is corrupt and paving the way to the "Hitler dream," why aren't our congress and other federally employed men and women, abandoning their own current government health insurance programs, and signing on with the supposedly "wonderful" private insurance programs? It's almost like, "do as I say, not as I do" sort of mentality.

Because profit, and gross profits with little to no regulation at that, create greed, there is absolutely no incentive for the private insurance companies to come back down to reasonable ground. The Public Option, along with setting up new rules such as destroying pre-existing conditions, is the only thing that is going to tie the greedy little hands of private insurance companies. For-profit insurance companies are in no way, shape, or form looking out for their customers, because they are expendable. Full-profit insurance companies are only looking out for their pockets. Which brings me to my second point.

Just for kicks, and to point out the obvious to my acquaintance who brought up county run hospitals, I researched nationally ranked hospitals in the United States to see where some of the for-profit and non-profit hospitals ranked. The #1 hospital in the country is Johns Hopkins, a non-profit hospital. The #2 hospital was the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN...a non-profit hospital. Actually out of the top 20 hospitals listed, not one was a for-profit hospital! Being that I live in the Houston area, and the largest medical center is rooted here, I found it sort of astonishing that not one Houston hospital was listed in the top 10 hospitals in the US. When Houston is finally listed, it is Methodist Hospital at #20....and guess what? It too is a non-profit hospital! What I found the most interesting is that Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which is a county hospital, was ranked at #9! Interesting that a county run hospital out ranks every for-profit hospital in the United States!

The facts are simply not with the voices from the right! The one thing they cling to, is their fear, and they are on a campaign to spread it! The voices of reason are armed with facts, and we need to be on a campaign to spread it!