Health care reform should be a no-brainer

Steve Metz, Henderson

Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

I am confused about the health care debate. For example, in its simplest form, it seems the conservatives want to maintain the insurance companies’ stranglehold on giant profits, arbitrarily denying people care, and not signing up those with preexisting conditions.

Also, by defeating a health care bill, prescription drug costs would remain unbelievably high, if not unaffordable for many seniors. And health care costs would continue to rise at their current rate.

President Barack Obama wants all of us to get health care at reasonable costs, and that would include lower costs for medicine. He also wants to stop insurance companies from dropping clients because of preexisting conditions. It’s also about getting health insurance for those people who are uninsured.

I can’t believe this has become talk about death panels killing grandma and a far-fetched claim that this is a government takeover of health insurance. The liberals want a way for people who are uninsured to be able to get health insurance, so that when they have an illness that requires a visit to the hospital emergency room, those services will be paid for. We also should create a more sophisticated delivery of health care services that stops duplication of services and, in turn, reduces costs.

All the rest is nothing more than creating fear, something the Republicans tried when they were debating Social Security and Medicare. They had the same exact doomsday, the-sky-is-falling approach to try to stop those monumentally successful programs. It’s deja vu.