It’s not just the media, however. A number of our elected officials fan the flames at town hall meetings by their outright refusal to debunk myths head on, or when they remain passive and weak in their responses as to further propagate these irrational ideas and fears that some of their constituents believe to be true. Paranoia is widespread among a lot of these conservative AM radio types, and I think that the fact that we are undergoing a generational change in leadership in this country, are in the midst of a recession and that we have a have a President who is half black have more to do with it than fear of health insurance reform. The pundits and so-called leaders on the right are just using the issue of health insurance reform as a centerpiece to rally the fringe and draw on other things that make them crazy with anger. They often use tactics and language to target the most simple-minded and unstable among them, who then do bizarre and dangerous things such as take guns and knives to Congressional and Presidential events. Now, I like my guns just as much as the next guy but these clowns are taking things way too far. On a positive note, I think all of these myths about health insurance reform have ran their course and we can get on with a rational and sensible debate.

The health care crisis we are seeing stems from unfair trade policies and a domination by insurers who have monopolized the market, greedy for-profit health care chains and big drug companies who refuse to give the American people a fair deal on medicines even after we pay taxes to help with research and development of the drugs they manufacture. Costs of medical goods and services have consequently skyrocketed, and the United States is paying two times as much as any other industrialized nation for health care with inferior results. We spend an average of $7,421 per person per year and our total expenditures totaled 2.2 trillion in 2007. Over the last nine years, the cost of premiums for employee-sponsored health care plans have doubled and this is at a pace three times faster than wages have advanced. More and more people can only get jobs that don’t offer health care as a result of unfair trade policies and can’t afford coverage on their meager salaries. The Congressional Budget Office says that if we do not reform health insurance, we will be spending a quarter of every dollar on health care by 2025. Our economy, although starting to improve, is in the toilet and health care costs and corruption in the system have a lot to do with that.

What we need is a public insurance option. This compromise is nothing close to socialized medicine, government-run health care or a government takeover. Private enterprise will remain at the helm, but this kind of health insurance reform will offer more choices to people and keep private entities honest. The last couple decades they have run amok with greed, and that’s partly why were in this economic mess that we see today. Nobody wants to add to the deficit any more than necessary, but look at any up front costs that do add to the deficit as an investment to get our economy back on track so that we can one day actually afford to pay down the national debt.