Is there legitimate concern on reform?

EDITOR:

There is a growing public alarm it seems over H.R. 3200, known as America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. The media has shown town hall meetings with angry citizens confronting their legislators about questionable wording in the bill; wording that suggests rationing of health care, limitations of health care for the elderly, mandatory taxpayer funding of abortion, mandatory counseling for end-of-life decisions, (many read euthanasia counseling).

Sadly, there seems to be a suggestion in the media and in the democratic leadership that the public protests are not pictures of angry individuals who think on their own, but pictures of pawns being moved around by political masters behind the scenes. There is the suggestion these protests are really a sinister plot to derail an otherwise hugely popular and benevolent government program designed to wrest health care away from the bad health insurance guys. There is the suggestion that our private health care system is just a refuge for greedy monopolists who do not have the sense of compassion for people that our government does. There is the suggestion that the majority of citizens really understand how good H.R. 3200 is and it is just a handful of wicked folks who are behind the protests.

Perhaps all this stuff is true - we do have the word of our president that this bill will improve health care. Certainly that must count for something?

But perhaps there is cause for protest about this bill.

I downloaded a pdf copy of H.R. 3200, and it is pretty huge - 1,017 pages, now residing in 1.75MB of my computer's memory. The bill was released July 14, Congress recessed Aug. 1. Seventeen days to read, digest, debate and approve a bill that will radically alter the way health care is done in America. Was that realistic? The president was passionate about getting the bill voted into law before the recess, but too many lawmakers were not comfortable with it, so it didn't happen. Now that the contents of the bill are being read, many Americans are finding reason for alarm with the bill.

From the midst of all this passion and protest something ominous is beginning to rise. Instead of seeing pro-H.R. 3200 lawmakers addressing the concerns their constituents are raising, they and the president seem set on belittling the protests and the protesters. Why aren't these real concerns being treated with open and specific explanations? If this bill is not the threat it is being perceived as, let the objections to it be openly and fairly addressed and put to rest by the bill's proponents.

The truth never needs to fear exposure, and if the concerns about H.R. 3200 are false and if this is truly a beneficial change to our health care system, let the objections be answered. On the other hand, if this is a hugely expensive government takeover of a citizen's right to his or her own private health care decisions, let it be exposed now.

Charles Evans

Coleville