The Health insurance industry has much to gain from Health Care reform, as do the politicians who take their money. Because of this it is no surprise to see a number of lies about health care reform pushed on the American People. We must dispel these lies, in order to have rational and intelligent discourse.
The biggest lie about Health care is that Obama will have "death squads" who will enforce mandatory Euthanasia on the elderly and unfit. This is a very odd lie at it corresponds to nothing more than a provision in one of the bills under consideration for "end of life care." All that bill says is that anyone who needs to make a living will or seek counsel for hospice care will be reimbursed. How we get form that, to death squads killing grandma is rationally inexplicable.
Sadly, this is politically explicable. Right-wing pundits, politicians, and commericials paid for by the health insurance industry fuel the fire of these fears and this anger which we see manifest in town hall protestors. These are really very ignorant people who have been whipped into a frenzy by those who are using and abusing them, while duping them into believing they fight for their freedom.
The other lies use Canada and England and their "socialized systems" to frighten Americans. Two problems here: First, neither Obama nor any committe in the house or senate is actually proposing a national health care systme like England's nor a Single-payer system like Canada. The bogey-man of "governmet-run health care" is just that ... a bogey. In logic we call this a "straw-man" opponents of health care reform are attacking an proposal that no one is actually proposing.
Which leads us to our second problem. England and Canada have better health care coverage than we do. Both these countries have longer life spans, better health generally, and less infant mortality. Just as importantly, there are no bankrupticies or massive debt from health care costs in England and Canadae, They cover everyone, save people from the hught medical costs we have in the United States, and do it for less - much less - of their GDP.
This fear of England and Canada and their "socialized medicine" hit an all time low recently. A well known journal declared that a "brilliant scientist" like Stephen Hawking would be left to die by the National Health Service in England.
Of course, Hawking actually is an Englishmen! He was born there, and has lived there all his life. In fact Stephen Hawking has been succesfully and well treated by England's National Health Service for 45 years. Oops.
A few hours of research on a weekend afternoon will quiclkly confirm that most claims about how horrible England and Canada are regarding Health care will show that most of these claims are about as true as the claim regarding how Stephen Hawking would be left to die in England.
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