The Gazette-Enterprise

Many Republicans are demanding that any health care reform contain a stated policy that no federal money will be used to help illegal aliens achieve insurance.

Even though there is a statement to that fact in at least one of the bills in the House of Representatives, the Republicans are arguing that there is no way to enforce the statement.

If I am hearing the conservatives, the Republicans, and some of the far right, they are demanding that the federal government is too involved in the daily affairs of Americans.

They are arguing that the government has already taken over the automobile industry and the banks.

In their anti-Obama and anti-government rhetoric, the Republicans, conservatives and far-right entertainers are really not thinking about what they are saying, shouting or screaming.

They are truly advocating more government intrusion into our lives. If they are trying to keep taxpayer money from going to illegal immigrants, they need to look at what is happening already.

One of the biggest costs to hospitals and insurance companies is that health care is provided to everyone in an emergency room.

Illegal immigrants and those without insurance wait until sickness becomes acute to seek health care. Thus, they have but one place to go and that is the emergency room of a hospital.

Insurance companies pay more to hospitals because of this, either out of their generosity — which I doubt — or because hospitals charge the insured more to cover the cost of the non-payment. Those hospitals that are funded through tax dollars must also raise more through taxes to pay for the uninsured.

I know of no hospital or certainly any doctor, who would deny health care to someone who truly needs it. It is against the law for hospitals to deny such care and I do not believe that they would deny it. Why don’t we let everyone who can pay for the public insurance policy have it, so that preventative medicine can be practiced rather than emergency room care?

Let us go to another scenario. Let us assume that a person is injured in an accident, is unconscious, and is in critical condition. How are the medical personnel going to know if that person is insured? How are we going to handle people who are legal immigrants and legal visitors to our country?

If the Republicans, conservatives, and right wing entertainers really believe that there should be less government in our personal lives, they are going to have some pretty serious problems.

If they are going to demand certification or identification of some kind, that means that we are all going to have to carry around a government issued identification card or something implanted in us vouching for our citizenship.

That is getting pretty close to the “big brother.”

Americans need to get away from the fear tactics and screaming that is being pushed by the far right.

We need to recognize that perhaps the moral goal of universal health care is more important than the bottom line of some insurance company or the outlandish salary that insurance executives receive.

Can insurance companies charge us less if they were to reduce the amount of advertising and lobbying that they do?

Just because most of us have health insurance, doesn’t mean that we are fully covered.

There has to be alternatives. But, before we kill health care reform altogether, can we at least wait until a bill is being voted on?

Let us see about what we are really talking. In the meantime, I hope those who are opposed to what is out there, look at the alternatives.

Jack Linden is a retired history professor and a regular contributor to the Gazette Enterprise editorial page.

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