GOP puts politics before country’s needs

In the spring, consultant Frank Luntz admonished the Republican Party to defeat President Barack Obama’s health care reform initiative, including national health insurance (also called universal health care or a single-payer system), according to Politico. If that’s true, Republicans are putting party politics before the needs of the country, and they may be winning the debate. 

National health insurance is not socialism or socialized medicine. It doesn’t even have to mean health care that is administered by the government. In fact, about 50 percent of Americans with health insurance already have a form of national health insurance which is administered through private health insurance companies like Blue Cross/Blue Shield. That’s what Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who’s been battling cancer, wants for his constituents – access to the same health care he’s getting.

But you wouldn’t know that by reading the editorial page of The News Virginian. Instead, the distortions that Mr. Luntz fabricated for the Republicans continue to be spewed, such as it’s socialism or that you won’t be able to pick your own doctor or that government-sponsored death committees will decide who lives or dies. That’s why town hall meetings have become so emotional. Not that people aren’t concerned about their health care, but because the Republican campaign of misinformation has them scared.

If you want to know why we need health care reform, go online and view the PBS documentary, “Sick Around America” (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundamerica/view/). And if you want to help people in our community who currently don’t have access to affordable health care, please make a donation to the Augusta Free Clinic (342 Mule Academy Road, Fishersville, Va., 22939).