Ronald Reagan: “[I]f you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.” [1961]

George H.W. Bush: Described Medicare in 1964 as “socialized medicine.” [1964]

Barry Goldwater: “Having given our pensioners their medical care in kind, why not food baskets, why not public housing accommodations, why not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those who smoke and of beer for those who drink.” [1964]

Bob Dole: In 1996, while running for the Presidency, Dole openly bragged that he was one of 12 House members who voted against creating Medicare in 1965. “I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare . . . because we knew it wouldn’t work in 1965.” [1965]

If it were up to me, I’d change a few things within Medicare, but for the most part it's a good program. The opposition has been very effective in fueling anti-government sentiment and getting their base out to the town hall tea parties across the country. They even have their own fleet of buses: The Tea Party Express. I get so annoyed when people cast the public option as a government takeover, socialized medicine or a government-run program. A vast majority of citizens understand that reform must happen now in order to rebuild our economy and give our fellow citizens the quality of life they have the right to enjoy. However, when reform is cast as aforementioned, people get paranoid. It's a matter of helping people understand the extent of government involvement. A lot of people think that the government is going to overtake the entire system, manage the hospitals and nursing homes, and employ all of the doctors, nurses, therapists and technicians. And, if I didn't know any better and spent my time in a vacuum listening to Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh while watching Fox News, I might just be sold on that, too. I'll bet the billionaires really appreciate these misinformed citizens serving as their pit bulls at the congressional town hall forums.

The fact remains that when free enterprise runs off the rails driven by greed and incompetence, it is the role of the government to be the people's watchdog and get the system back on track. For example, look at how letting the free market foxes guard their own hen house on Wall Street worked out. Not so good. Now, they are working on health care. The private insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and big for-profit health care chains are ripping us off with inflation of their goods and services outpacing the rest of our economy 2:1. The number of people employed by private insurance companies keeps climbing, while the number of insured is plummeting. What are these extra employees doing if they have fewer customers to serve? Figuring out how not to cover and reimburse (the rationing and death panel division.) On scandalous drug companies: I just read a press release today from Kansas Attorney General Steve Six about a consumer and Medicaid fraud settlement of $2.3 billion that was reached between multiple states and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. So, just like on Wall Street, when corporate American health care profiteers get a little too greedy and things hit the fan, our government needs to restore accountability. What do we need to do with our health care enterprise? Shorten its leash.

Back to how the public misunderstands the government’s proposed role in health insurance reform. The only thing a public option will do is allow people under 65 to buy into Medicare early if the want to. You may buy into Medicare, but you wont get a free ride unless you are falling on hard times and qualify for Medicare which already exists. No government run hospitals, labs and nursing homes, nor health care professionals on the government payrolls. No socialized medicine nor a government takeover.

By shortening the private insurance industry's leash we'd actually eliminate rationing and death-panels-in-effect, which they've become a master of in recent years. By demanding a public option for everyone to consider, we are not advocating that the entire health care system be transformed into the Veteran's Administration, which is a real American example of socialized medicine. We are not advocating for a single payer system in doing so, which we'd be doing if we scrapped private insurers altogether and implemented a system like Medicare to handle billing, accounting and administration of benefits for all our people.

All a public option will do is handle the billing, accounting and administration of health benefits if you choose to buy into the program. This ultimately increases choice and competition in order to reign in costs while delivering high quality care to those who choose to buy into the option.

Private insurers and all other elements of our private health care enterprise will be left alone; they just won't be able to keep writing their own rules. From hearing some of the reform principles championed by those who oppose this plan it seems as if they actually support a public option, but merely oppose the President and the Democrats.

I heard Rep. Lynn Jenkins say at a recent town hall tea party that we all need to “be a grown up and go buy the insurance.” No, Ms. Jenkins, I think we need to be grown ups who stand for a fair and just society while making sure that corporate America plays by the same rules that the rest of us do. If not, all that will be left is Wealthcare for Billionaires.