Health care is a lot like American Idol: It’s hard to keep your opinions about it to only a few words.

Personally, I hate American Idol, except for the first two weeks of each season. You know, the ones where they show all the bad singers? That’s chicken soup for my soul, dawg.

See? It took 31 words to say what I could have said in three: “I hate it.”

Granted, health care is a lot more complicated. As President Barack Obama speaks about health care and an overhaul to Medicare, many have plenty of opinions about the right and wrong ways to do it.

It took the Globe’s editorial board several hundred words to state its opinion last week, and even then, it only skimmed the surface. The Globe called for reduction in damages for medical malpractice and more of an emphasis on diagnostic and preventive care.

Globe readers also weighed in online with lengthy responses. Here’s what they had to say:

“I will start with something that I have said before, look up insurance in the dictionary and you will find this, a license to steal, after that comes in big letters, WE RULE. I personally do not give a big rat’s behind what excuse they come up with, every last citizen in this country does deserve the same as our Congress members. The labors of the good citizens make it possible for Congress to have all the benefits of life that we as citizens only hope to receive. I and many in this country are tired of being used up and then left to die while all these ‘fat cats’ live the good life off our life’s blood. I look at insurance companies as no more than those old-time gangsters in New York and Chicago running the protection rackets, they have lobbied our Congress until they now own every last minute of our lives.”

— oldman

“Reform indicates there is something wrong with a person or system and needs changing. The only thing wrong with the American health system is the federal government. Grandpa didn’t need it and neither do we. However, we have it and we will see it get worse. Obama Health and Enlightenment Language and Law (O HELL).”

— DAVE

“The public option is the only way to keep the insurance companies from practicing medicine. The people that want ‘public option’ break down like this. If you include people who said they were leaning toward one party or the other, the breakdown is 51 percent Democrats, 38 percent Republicans, and 11 percent Independents in 2008. Nearly 68 percent of young people voted for Barack Obama and delivered the strongest mandate for change our country has seen in decades. There will be health-care reform, the insurance companies can’t stop it this time.”

— BUSHWHACKED

“I like both of the premises, and would suggest another — to change the beginning of the statute of limitations from the time of malpractice to the time of awareness of malpractice. I suggest this because most people do not have the sophisticated understanding of what is normal and appropriate medical care, and what is not. And, in case anyone thinks ‘it can’t happen to me,’ to be in fairly extreme need of medical care without the means to pay for it, think again. May 31 was my last day of coverage under Medicaid. Since then, a few of my maintenance medications have run out, with no way to pay for more. My wife works because the state makes her leave the house and work outside the home instead of caring for me. She makes between $800 and $1,000 a month gross, and that is just too much for either of us adults to be eligible for coverage, using the 20 percent of poverty standard. Since the Social Security Administration has the culture of denial pervasive throughout, with judges told to deny for any reason, even in the overwhelming face of evidence, I am languishing in limbo, subjected to increasing pain on a daily basis, while waiting for the gears of bureaucracy to grind their glacially paced way to the ultimate conclusion of approval. Until then, I have zero medical care, when I have significant need for care.”

— David Smith

“I think anyone with a serious illness should be euthanized! People who have no money don’t have the right to remark on how tax money is spent! I am sure that if you are too poor to afford insurance for your children, you should not be able to have children. If you can’t afford insurance for yourself, join the military and get free health care and be a patriot, and not a drag on society. People who are unemployed for more than 10 weeks should be made to find work in foreign countries, and if they stay there for more than a year they should give up their U.S. citizenship. Last but not least, you should get votes in elections according to your income, someone with an income of $20,000 or less equal to no votes ... $100,001 to $1 million equal to 50,000 votes. This would ensure that only the right people would be elected.”

— Right and Right

Joe Hadsall is the assistant features editor for The Joplin Globe.