Same Tired Argument, Same Result

Saturday, November 11, 2009 is a historical day in the fight for those that can’t fight for themselves. The Senate healthcare reform bill appears to be headed to the floor for debate. This debate will hopefully begin a new chapter in American history. If this bill passes healthcare will stop being about money and start being about our humanity and civility.

The news cycle will be filled with Senators, Representatives, Governors, future White House hopefuls, Fox news anchors and even half term Alaskan Governors railing against the evils of a public health option. Socialized medicine, destruction of the doctor patient relationship, the end of personal freedom, and the rationing of our essential healthcare needs will be the central argument. It’s 1965 all over again and the oppositions’ screams of the end of the America we know and love has not changed. In the words of DMX it’s the “Same old s*** dawg, just a different day.”

For the last 44 years Medicare, a public health insurance plan, has provided care to all of its enrollees from coast to coast. It has provided health and financial security to millions of older people, people with disabilities and their families. For two generations Medicare has provided affordable insurance to those who otherwise could not afford it. Communism is not knocking at our door, seniors do not have to meet with death panels that get to decide who lives and who dies and the only people who are suffering without proper medical attention are those without insurance and those whom insurance companies consider high risk.

Those in the media and those in politics, who would rather see the current Administration fail in its attempts to fix this growing and largely unchecked problem, are being irresponsible. They are using the oldest political technique in the book, scare them into surrender. It is the easiest road to take whenever change is involved. The fear of the unknown has always been greater than the fear of the familiar, even when the familiar is unhealthy and unwise. Left in the hands of the conservative status quo, healthcare will never be fixed, because lowering taxes with impunity and deregulation, though an enticing sound bite can not solve all of the problems that we as a nation are suffering from.

We have to make sacrifices for the generations that will come after us. We should strive to leave a better world and a better nation than we received. Hard work should allow our citizens to reap the rewards of a more comfortable life, but all Americans deserve the right to live without the fear of financial ruin when catastrophic illness strikes. Don’t be afraid of rationed care now, because it has always been here. It is based on a socio-economic divide that underlines the worst values in our society. It is time to lend a hand to all of our American brothers and sisters and to reflect our greatest values, the generosity of our character and the deepness of our compassion.