Angry at industry’s misguided pawns

Linda Turner, Henderson

Monday, Aug. 17, 2009 | 2:03 a.m.

I hear there is “angry opposition” to health care reform.

Well, I’m angry, too, because these so-called angry opponents, in their zeal to “break” President Barack Obama at any cost, risk cheating themselves and the rest of us out of needed change and our very survival.

Please don’t refer to the town-hall spectacles as “vigorous debate.” Unlike serious people who have real questions, concerns and suggestions, the “disrupters” have only been manipulated by the status quo forces (the insurance/pharma companies and lobbyists) to disrupt town meetings and unnerve legislators, to keep the legitimate concerns and issues from being discussed. They prefer to scare people with outright lies.

If you don’t want your doctor to be reimbursed for counseling you on “end-of-life” decisions, then execute a living will yourself to make your wishes known.

If you don’t want “socialized medicine,” protest the Veterans Affairs system, our only health service that is in fact owned and operated by the U.S. government.

If you want fewer insurance benefits for more money, oppose a public option that would keep your insurance company honest and efficient.

The disrupters don’t seem to fear losing their insurance with their jobs, or worry that their employers will stop subsidizing their insurance, or that an insurance company bureaucrat will tell them they can’t have a procedure, or that a preexisting condition will disqualify them for coverage, or that high premiums and co-pays will force them into bankruptcy.

If we lose this chance to fix health care in America, it will be because the disrupters put their narrow political interests and the profits of insurance and pharmaceutical companies ahead of the best interests of the American people. We cannot let them!