MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

November 25, 2009

Health care’s reform


The Senate’s health care reform bill is online, all 2,074 pages of it, supposedly. It’s so big it’s difficult to open and download. We think reform shouldn’t be that complicated or government intrusive.

No one, however, should be afraid of open debate, and undoubtedly, reform is needed. As we and others have pointed out many times before, we have serious problems in this country with health care. One was documented recently in a federal report on Medicare, which stated the government program paid more than $47 million in questionable claims in the last year.

But the health care and insurance industries have not found the resolve to address their own issues, which leave Americans paying higher costs for care and insurance each year. No doubt government has crept in, and made it more complicated, but it won’t be resolved by simply kicking government out.

All Americans should learn as much as they can about the bill.

Then we should let our congressmen and senators know how we feel. We should become part of the public debate.

Not everyone will get his or her way in this issue.

But we are all entitled to our say.