This is from my blog...
Barack Obama does not want to kill your grandmother or your unborn child.
Relax. Breathe. Repeat.
Barack Obama does NOT want to kill your grandmother or your unborn child.
The president also does not want to take over your current health coverage and replace it with a government-run plan.
I know. I know.
You’re saying, “But the guy on Fox News told me that he does!”
Or, “That guy giving the speech outside one of those town hall meetings said that Obama is the next Hitler or Stalin and he was wondering what the American holocaust would be called. He seemed so convincing!"
Unfortunately, if you believe these things, you’ve been lied to. You’ve been the pawn of special interest groups. You’ve been hoodwinked and bamboozled by the Republican lying machine.
If you don’t believe me, look at HR 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, which was recently introduced to Congress. I know it’s lawyer talk and can be confusing, but nowhere will you see the words “abortion” and “euthanasia.”
But more about this later.
Over the next few days, I’ll try to explain why this healthcare reform is actually a good thing, what this reform actually is, why fears regarding state-funded abortions and increased euthanizations for the elderly are unfounded scare tactics, and why liberal cries of “single-payer,” while well-meaning, are pipe dreams.
We will get to the lies and misconceptions, and actually look to see what “reform” means, but before that, it's important to discuss why reform is actually needed.
During the last few weeks, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard critics of health reform say, “They want to make the U.S. system look like those in Europe or Canada.”
Yes, please!
Unfortunately, this reform won’t go that far, but why wouldn’t the American politicians want to emulate the systems from Europe or Canada?
All of those mostly public systems are cheaper and more effective than the mostly private American system.
Reality is that the American healthcare system is broken. It’s been broken for years. It’s too expensive and excludes too many people.
In fact, the United States is the only developed country in the world that lacks universal coverage.
An estimated that 15 percent, or 45.7 million Americans lack coverage (link opens a PDF).
There are several reasons why so many Americans remain uninsured. The primary one being cost.
Most of the uninsured live in households that make less than $50,000 per year.
But at least 5 million Americans are uninsurable because of “pre-existing conditions.” In addition, there are an estimated 8 million uninsured children and an estimated 8 million uninsured young adults.
Healthcare reform should bridge this gap in coverage.
According to 2005 numbers from the World Health Organization, the United States spent 15.5 percent of its gross domestic product on health. Canada, which has mostly a publicly funded system, which covers all of its citizens, spent 9.7 percent of its GDP on health.
What? That has to be a mistake.
Let’s look at other publicly run systems. France? 11.2 percent of its GDP on health. The United Kingdom? 8.2 percent of its GDP. Sweden? 9.2 percent.
So the question that begs asking is why does it cost so much more in the United States?
It comes back to the uninsured, which leads to the excessive use of emergency care. The costs of these visits, which run into the thousands of dollars per hour, are then passed on to the American taxpayer.
In addition, lack of preventive care in this country and the failure of technological advancement to spread to the health industry, also increase to the troubled system.
A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit organization with the goal of “working toward a high performance health system,” ranked the United States last among 18 developed countries in healthcare.
In a smaller survey of six countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, and Australia—the U.S. system ranked last or next to last in quality care, access, efficiency, equity, healthy lives, and cost.
The steps taken in the House bill would do much to alleviate these problems and substantially improve the American system.
Tomorrow. The lies and misconceptions about reform.
When John McCain and Barack Obama step onto the stage in Oxford, Mississippi on Sept. 26, they'll argue about taxes, about the Iraq War, about whose health care plan is better, and who has the "experience to lead."But I want to argue that this election is about more than that. It IS about "change," as Obama's been arguing since the beginning and McCain has argued since the RNC. But this election is just as much about image at home and around the world.When Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech at the DNC and was greeted by two- or three-minute standing ovation, my eyes teared up. I looked at him and saw a black man - something I didn't think I'd ever see in a presidential election. I saw a man who's better than the athletes that are flashed on the TV screen as "role models." He's better than the millionaire rappers who roll in the Hummers and rims and loud thumps.He's a magna cum laude from Harvard University. He's someone who gave up millions in order to work on the streets as a community organizer. He's someone who came from a father-less home and, by his bootstraps, made himself one of the two finalists for the most important job in the world.But more than that, Obama represents something for the rest of the world. He represents an America that can be better than it has ever been to its neighbors. It can be the first major Western country to elect a black president, or prime minister. People around the world will look at the United States and say, "Even a black man can become president in the United States. That is a wonderful place of opportunity."Yes, I agree with Obama's tax policies, his environmental policies, and his energy policies, but underlying all that support is my belief that an Obama presidency can give Americans something that's been missing since, well, Franklin Roosevelt - that the future might not be such an awful thing full of despair and failure. I believe an Obama presidency will truly give us hope.He gives me hope for a better future for our country. He gives me hope that this country can change for the better and that our great sins of the past can be overcome. He gives me hope that racism can truly become a thing of the past. He gives me hope that minorities and the underprivaledged of all colors will truly shoot to be the best. An Obama presidency will make me truly proud to be an American.
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