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Health Care Reform, Myth vs. Fact

The following is from AARP. Being an old guy, I am a member in good standing of AARP. I don’t always agree with everything the organization supports but I have never caught them lying to me. Sadly I can’t say that about either political party. Health care reform has become a political issue which denigrates its imperative necessity. “Swift Boating” has become a popular tool to discredit anything the demagogues disagree with. The louder and harder you lie, the more people fall prey to your lies. Oddly enough the “big lie” was a popular tool of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi) and that party name is being used as a club against those who support health care reform. This issue has become emotional and has attracted the emotionally unstable to become vocally bombastic.

Getting away from the emotional rhetoric, I pay a bunch of money each month for very basic insurance. It is expensive but necessary. Key here is that I can afford it. Way too many people can not afford it. The current proposal for health care reform is not perfect but it is a necessary step in the right direction. The hate monger fanatics of either political party can’t stand the idea that something as important as health care reform is being proposed by the current administration. We need health care reform and we need it NOW, regardless of political affiliation look past the rhetoric, the fear mongering and the flat out lies and see what the facts are.

Myth: Health care reform is socialized medicine.
Fact: Health care reform will preserve the employer-based health care system.
Fact: For people buying coverage for themselves, there would be a range of private health plans to choose from, as well as the so-called “public plan” that would give American consumers another choice .
Myth: Health care reform means rationed care.
Fact: None of the health reform proposals being considered would stand between individuals and their doctors or prevent any American from choosing the best possible care.
Fact: Health care reform will help ensure doctors are paid fairly so they will continue to treat Medicare patients.
Myth: Health care reform will hurt Medicare.
Fact: None of the health care reform proposals being considered by Congress would cut Medicare benefits or increase your out-of-pocket costs for Medicare services.
Fact: Health reform will lower prescription drug costs for people in the Medicare Part D coverage gap or “doughnut hole” so they can better afford the drugs they need.
Myth: Health care reform is too expensive – we can’t afford it.
Fact: The President and Congress have committed to producing legislation that will be paid for so it won’t saddle our children and grandchildren with debt.
Fact: If we do nothing to fix health care, families with Medicare or employer-based coverage will likely see their premiums nearly double again in the next seven years.
Myth: Health reform means the government can make life-and-death decisions for you.
Fact: Health care reform will NOT give the government the power to make life-and death decisions for anyone regardless of their age. Those decisions will be made by individuals, their doctor and their family.
For more information, visit HealthActionNow.org

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