Why is there suddenly such an urgency to reform health care here in the United States? Shades from the politics of 1992-93?

The topic has been kicked around in political circles for decades. The United States has several years of history in operating Medicare A and B, and Medicaid and more recently with Medicare D, the drug plan; none pay their way without dipping into the general tax coffers and they are becoming more burdensome as the years go by.

Yes, there are 40-some million, approximately 15 percent of the U.S. population, without medical insurance coverage, but we also know a sizable number of the uninsured fall into the choice column; do I want to buy health insurance or something else? Something else wins out. Just because someone doesn’t have health insurance does not mean they don’t have access to health-care providers. We have hospital emergency rooms, community clinics, tax-supported mental-health groups and city health departments; all provide varying health-care services to the uninsured.

There is no question but what some folks are in dire straights because of their deteriorating health; we read these stories frequently. Does this mean we force the entire country to the wall financially for those few or do we find a way for them as we have for those on kidney dialysis to move onto the Medicare rolls?

We tend to hear what we want to hear, believe what we want to believe and even see what we want to see at times regardless of known facts. How many times have European countries been held up as an example for national health care? Do we know what the history of their plans are telling them? Have we bothered to ask or look at the social-economic cross-section of their population or trends for health-care costs in those countries? Would you believe some of those countries are reporting health-care costs going up twice as fast as their Gross Domestic Product and three or four times as fast as wages? If their programs were a panacea of success, do you not think every developed country in the world would have been on the bandwagon long ago?

I believe we spend more for health care here in the United States than any other country; we’re real pill poppers, and yet there continues political rhetoric that says we must reform our health care with a massive federal government controlled system of care. Why?

There are those who are very adamant about the need for national health care. When we can’t even agree on a fix for the increasing costs of Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid except to raise taxes, how in the world can anyone really think the federal government can operate a national health system at a reasonable cost?

So many perceived problems. Are we being led into believing the problems are greater than they really are? The last I noticed, there are only so many dollars to go around; if they get taxed into government coffers for social entitlement programs, how do we grow an economy, continue providing employment, pay off our debt, compete with foreign competition and maintain our infrastructure?

It’s going to be a long four years.

Konrad Heid lives in Joplin.