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The initial financial stimulus was only two pages long. The details came out as the plan progressed. Unfortunately, the reverse is true with this healthcare program. With all the details on the table, it will be very hard to please anyone.
TOWN HALL MEETINGS
Town hall meetings are set up by politicians to orchestrate their events as much as protesters do to disrupt them. It may not be right, but that is democracy.
Everyone has a right to go to a town hall meeting and express their views on issues that affects them. All of us should have the same right to talk, argue, or even shout about issues. It's too bad we are doing it in an unruly way.
THE GREAT DEBATE
There is a vicious debate over how to change health care in America. The debate is hurting Obama’s high approval rating as this debate drags on. The intensity is seeing in congressional town hall meetings throughout the country. This debate is quickly consuming the country. There are various interpretations of the proposed legislative plan, and there is certainly is much to debate: the cost to taxpayers, how private insurance companies will be affected, the cost to businesses, how seniors will be effecting etc.
A lot of the debate is not helping anyone on both sides of the arguments. There is some hysteria among opponents and some exaggerations among proponents. In America, people always question what the government proposes, rather than swallowing it blindly. That is democracy in action. All this shouting and viscious confrontations are not pretty, and better manners should exist. However silence would be much worse.
CONCERNS MAGNIFIED
Pres. Obama has yet to convince skeptics that reform will lower healthcare spending. There is also concern that people will not be able to keep their same health coverage. People worry about the government dictating the levels of minimum coverage, cost containment, end of life dictates, reduced Medicare coverage, and the government’s intent to create its own public plan that might remove people from private insurance coverage.
There is a fear that government will decide what level of treatment you may get at the end of life. Advanced care planning consultations are planned where doctors would talk to their elderly people about end-of-life care, living wills, and wishes for terminating care in some circumstances--this is not resonating well with seniors. There are numerous interpretations, some are extreme, and everyone is trying to educate everyone else.
CAN’T SIMPLIFY THE ISSUES
The real issues of health care coverage cannot be overly simplified and generalized. Yet both sides rely on bitter slogans and exaggeration to create shock value. It is not been a good debate, not even a serious one. Complex health care answers cannot be conveyed in a nine second commercial.
The healthcare issue is bigger than anyone ever thought. It has resulted in falling congressional personal polls and angry town hall meetings. This great recession has changed the mood of our nation. All of Congress seems to be shell- shocked. They had not really known how people feel about their health care.
IS THE PASSION AUTHENTIC?
The public is passionate and is scared. Both sides claim the passion isn't authentic, was set up by insurance companies, lobbyists, and especially the Republican national committee. Accusations are made that people are carrying swastikas, are two well dressed in jackets and ties, and must represent an organized planned protest engineered to hurt the president.
The Republicans, on the other hand, criticize the White House about creating a new White Hous e-mail address to encourage citizens to report any “fishy’ information they may see on an e-mail or anything on the web that looks suspicious and then send it to flag@Whitehouse.gov. This is an attempt to “fight intentionally misleading information” says the white house.
The Republicans accuse the White House of compiling an enemy list with this website, creating a dissident database. If this were so, why would the White House make it so public?
COMMENTARY
With a government health care plan so complex, confusing, and undercooked, can anyone really say what it will or will not allow, what it will or will not pay for? What is being sold, is not accepted by the public. No matter how good the communications may be now, bad policy must be changed.
It seems concerned citizens are being mocked, called stupid, extremists, right-wing, and can not see light, but in reality they are merely concerned citizens that deserve respect.
Americans question our government whose members take our tax money while taking bribes, shout for morality, and then get caught with their pants down, or lecture business people about private planes, and then turn around and order a bunch of them for themselves.
This health care plan should be argued on its merits. The bill submitted is over 1000 pages long, and many different bills are being submitted with the same length. What the final bill will be, is unknown.
Congress needs to act responsibly, deliberate, and with wisdom. Every day the town meetings seem to be a little angrier, and people are more afraid. With President Obama himself having three town meetings this week, the rhetoric may change.
Since, we have a peace initiative in the Middle East, why not have a peace initiative on health care reform? Perhaps the timing is wrong, and it should take a little longer for Americans, to have the health care details clairified.
As we face uncharted territory, with all the details of the plan on the table, it certainly will be hard to please anyone.
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