Health Care Reform: What is the problem?

As I sit listening to the rain fall delicately upon my un-mowed lawn, I struggle with the shearing off of the moral fabric of our great country. I ponder, how can a person be against universal health care? “America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens.”- George W. Bush-Inaugural address, 2001. I fear that former President Bush will come to see that “our ideals” have become unbound and polarized. We, as a nation, are as divided as ever. “What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes." –Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), on what is needed to defeat health care reform, Aug. 31, 2009. Is this what Former President Bush meant by “bound by ideals”? I am also really confused by the pro-life groups against universal health care. Save the fetus, but to hell with the child once they are born."That's why people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress, and let them know, under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions." —Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a pro-lifer. Yet, "Today’s Census data show that there are 8.1 million uninsured children in America.”-Children’s Defense Fund. Am I the only person who recognizes this irony?

Does the government have the answer? They have not had an impressive record of running programs. I think of a quote by Thomas Jefferson: “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

I am confused, as my good friend James M. stated about my position on health care reform. “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." —Sarah Palin, in a message posted on Facebook about Obama's health care reform plan. Doesn’t the “death panel” already exist with insurance companies deciding whether to pay or not to pay for someone's treatment, Am I the only person who has to get preauthorization for medical treatments? Sure Obama’s plan has gaps, needs work, but at least it is a start. You have to crawl before you can walk, right?

This is just the beginning of our debate. I will listen intently to both sides and blog about my findings later.