Health care reform - fix all solutions?

Multi-tasking health care reform?
By D. "Deuke" Eukel

Debate has been raging for months about the so-called "health care reform" package the president and his party of divided democrats is trying to ram through Congress - and ultimately the American people.

Some have suggested the reform package will be a fix all, with the ability to handle many health care tasks at once - all in an effort to curb the high cost of health care. Others say the package is a subtle con game being perpetuated by insurance companies, drug producers, and personal injury attorneys.

The heated debates, discussions and comments from around the country, despite President Obama's comments to the contrary, have generally been open, and honest - at least in the public domain. Not many however, would agree that key legislators, who seem to be key in forming the final bill have either been open or honest.

One recent article pointed to the close connections the so called, "Gang of six" (three Republican and three Democrat senators) have to high powered lobbyists - some who are employed by the very firms that will be affected most by the health care reform bill. This group called the 'G6' are supposed to be a "bipartisan committee" of senators with the task of smoothing the way for a less costlier financing package.

One of the G6 senators had the gall to say that he and his wife, who is one of the high powered lobbyists, never agree on anything related to health care. Who was he trying to fool? If there's not a conflict of interest in this matter, what is a conflict of interest?

Others have argued that this is normal practice to have "experts" on the subject matter as key information specialists for Senate committees. There is logic in that argument, but in this case when legislators are trying to come up with a package that will work for all, should the very people who have caused most of the problems with health care, i.e., drug companies, personal injury attorneys (ambulance chasers) and insurance carriers, have insiders on the very committee that is key to forming the bill?

The public has become downright hostile in some areas of the country; some demanding that the president be impeached for what is perceived as his socialist agendas; others because of the belief that some "liberal legislators," such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are demanding the reform bill include a "public option." The so called, public option in the minds of most, mean an intrusive government-run health care system. And indeed, from the president's own mouth the bill should include a requirement that all Americans must purchase a health care plan, "....Just like auto insurance," the president said.

Most see this government-run system, by bureaucratic controllers at the helm as paving the way for the loss of even more freedoms. More than 1.7 million people showed up in Washington D.C. to protest the reform bill, this past weekend, and mainstream media didn't even cover it. One White House spokesperson said that the protestors weren't indicitive of the rest of the country's wishes.

If 1.7 million people aren't indicitive of the the country's concerns over this bill, then maybe 10 million might be come election day. It is already being said in many quarters that democrats will lose their majority in 2010. Many others are saying that President Obama is a "one hit wonder, with no hits."

What do you say?