The Gantt Report
By Lucius Gantt
Have you been keeping up with the current heath care debate? Be careful what bandwagon you choose to ride on because the road is not only rough, it’s also muddied!
What’s currently taking place in many of America’s cities is billed as “town hall meeting” but experienced lobbyists and politicos refer to the gatherings as “dog and pony shows”!
Coverage of the health care meetings makes me shame to say I’m a journalist. News reports indicates and suggests that town hall meeting attendees are mostly concerned Americans when in fact a significant number of people at the events are no more than political mercenaries!
I wouldn’t be surprised if both proponents and opponents both have people holding signs, hollering and screaming about health care that have been paid by special interests.
It is not unusual for doctors, lawyers, insurance companies, cable TV companies, telephone companies and other business associations or special interest groups to roll out groups before the media that look like community organizations but are really industry employees.
People are paid to hold signs, paid to make comments and paid to attend town hall meetings. How do I know? Even Lucius Gantt has been paid in the past to write press releases or opinion columns for devilish interest groups.
In politics, it’s not enough to be appropriate. It’s not enough to be right on the issue. Political adversaries must be able to prevail. They must be able to generate the necessary votes to kill or pass a bill or governmental proposal.
The main people, in my opinion, against health care reform are insurance companies. They do not want an America where every citizen has health care coverage. They do not want all citizens to have access to hospitals and doctors. They do not want everyone to have low cost prescription medication.
Insurance companies can’t compete with a public health care option. If Americans had a choice of purchasing low cost “Medicare-like” coverage or paying for high cost insurance that denies policy holders coverage every chance they get, the people would choose the public health option.
When you’ve had a life-threatening illness or sickness like I have had, health care is very important. The nation’s credit status is not the only thing burdened by high health care costs. Your credit status will be ruined too if you ever need extensive health care.
Love the American health care alternatives or hate them but believe this, just because health care costs more in the United States, it doesn’t mean that health care is best here. We’re worried about costs but some of the poorest third world countries have free or very low cost health care. Go figure!
It’s all about priorities. Health care for all should be paramount!
