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Health Care Reform in America: A story of fear-mongering and a debacle of a debate

I think it has become increasingly apparent to any rational person in the US that this "debate" on health care reform has put politics and fear-mongering before the well-being of the American people and their opinions. According to polls, at least 70% of Americans want reform in the health care system. Around 24% say no, and around 6% are unsure. For the most part, the most vocal of reasons against the proposed public option has been that the public option will tear down the country because the US will become under socialist rule. These types of fear-mongering opinions can be found in most of the right wing talk-radio shows, most notably Rush Limbaugh, the heavily ring wing Fox News Channel, and the protestors at the town hall meetings. Take note, that a good deal of these outbreaks are by protestors that travel around from town hall to town hall and represent organizations lead by health insurance industries and the like (i.e, freedomworks). Statements made by anti-public option politicians(Republican and Democrat, both paid off by insurance companies and the like) in Congress and by organizations such as freedomworks cause a mass spread of misinformation, which in truth, such accusations started a year ago in the campaigns. The so-called debate has also caused laughable talking points and presentations in Congress. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct--N3hJfxs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWw23XwO5o
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-august-4-2009/chuck-grassley-s-debt-and-deficit-dragon

I bring this all up because the amount of misinformation is overwhelming. So overwhelming that not only can't we get an honest debate on health care, but Americans are spilling their fear to their reasoning more than ever. Recently, Republican representative of South Carolina Bob Inglis advocated in a town hall meeting that he agrees to putting legislation for more energy efficient light bulbs (which would save people money) and that he agrees that children should be vaccinated for diseases. The crowd yells at him in anger and say they fear Obama. Inglis asks them what are they so afraid of and to stop watching Glenn Beck and they snapped back at him.

The sad thing is that the few powerful Republicans that can actually give a good argument against the proposed bill without fear-mongering cannot get a voice in and are muted out by the fear-mongering from Fox, Republicans in Congress, and the likes of Rush Limbaugh. I just watched Real Time with Bill Maher. It was Bill Maher vs 2 Republican representatives. One of the representatives was actually able to make a reasonable argument (the other one was an idiot about it). The three even went on to discuss whether or not they agree with Rush Limbaugh's statement about Obama being like Hitler, and both reps disagreed, though one of them (I think his name was Darrel Issa) actually sounded sincere. Throughout the show, I wondered
"why isn't this the kind of debate not being done in Congress and the like". But then I remembered that the game of politics and corruption always seems to come before the well-being of the people. Granted Issa is not the smartest guy to debate health care, but at least he was able to man up this instance and not resort to fear-mongering. I'll say that I disagree with his position because for the most part he is focusing too much on the $$$, but at least he was able to articulate it; not resort to fear tactics.

Just to add, I am for the public option (but honestly I'd prefer something similar to the hybrid system like what the French have). I'm not a democrat or a republican. But quite frankly, this should be an issue that needs to be addressed now and not be a joke of a debate.

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Comment by Jay on August 9, 2009 at 11:12am: Same here Mike.

Comment by Mike Hein on August 9, 2009 at 6:02am: I like factcheck.org, good site. We'll have to part ways on Rachel Maddow and K.O., I put them right up their with Rush and Hannity for their smug attitudes and biased coverage of....well anything.

That said, I would like to see some better dialog on this and I would love to see the insurance companies dealt a blow (and i"m not anti-corporate at all).

Regards,

Comment by Jay on August 8, 2009 at 11:07pm: Just to add, a recent study shows that around 86.7 million Americans were uninsured in the past two years ( for the most part people seem to drop their coverage for a while in order to save $$$) More @ this link: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/04/uninsured.epidemic.obama/

Comment by Jay on August 8, 2009 at 11:04pm: I agree with you say about how both sides are spinning arguments. Hence why I recommend factcheck.org. It's truly a great site.

And especially agreed on the media part. The tv news media hardly does any actual reporting. I sometimes watch MSNBC for news. More specifically Rachel Maddow and sometimes Keith Olbermann. Those two do a great job on calling bullshit on both sides. In my opinion, the most spin is coming from the right wing. I know that sounds biased but uh, calling a moderate progressive a Nazi? Really? And then you have people who say to keep government out of my medicare, yet that is a government run program. The left is spinning numbers which is just sad imo.

Comment by Mike Hein on August 8, 2009 at 10:06pm: While the insurance lobby is definitely using every dirty trick in the book to fight this, the proponents for radical changes are doing their own bit of spin-doctoring. The numbers quoted for uninsured, underinsured, and those being without insurance at some time during a year are to say the least.....suspect.

It's not just the media that is failing to get out the message about what the proposed bill REALLY contains, it's the administration itself. They need to be out front about what this is, not just keep repeating how bad the current system is.

Comment by Jay on August 8, 2009 at 3:14pm: A great site to see the lies from both sides: factcheck.org

Comment by Jay on August 8, 2009 at 2:54pm: @ Richard- the only news tv organization I see actually doing reporting about health care is MSNBC (at night at least).
Fox is always a joke.
CNN hardly does reporting. They love to keep an old story going.

Comment by Jay on August 8, 2009 at 2:52pm: @ Bryan-the government is just paying it really. They aren't gonna tell what your doctor can or cannot do. Essentially and hopefully, they will become the insurance company that doesn't deny you and is at fair costs.
The military, veterans, medicare-all from government. Do I beleive they should control everything? Hell no. But the current plan isn't a government takeover. Health insurance companies will have no choice but to make fairer costs if they wish to stay in business.

Comment by Richard J. Collins on August 8, 2009 at 10:41am: Another thing that people are missing is the sloppy job of reporting CNN and CBS is doing. Dick Armey's lobbying firm is up to their ears in this deliberate sabotage of our open society. He is a rabid Christian and supporter of the secret dominionists who actually are working to install a theocracy. This is not idle conspiracy theory. If reporters were doing their jobs they would go after the mailing lists that Armey and others like him are using to send instructions to their underlings. It is sickening how poorly the mainstream press is functioning. They are either incompetent or afraid of their corporate cash cow.