The Gazette-Enterprise

There is much being made about a health bill that has not even come up for a vote in the House of Representatives.

While there is no bill before the House, the Senate has not even brought one out of committee. Nevertheless, there is screaming and shouting about something, most of which is not even in the “bills” that aren’t bills.

The Republicans in their screaming and shouting have really shown how little they have thought about what they are saying. This includes members of Congress and especially those who are ranting on the radio and television and those who are listening and watching. Only one example is needed to show how little they are thinking. that example is “we don’t want government interfering with the patient-doctor relationship.”

A bit of history might refresh their memory. Do they remember the Terry Shivao medical case? She was the woman who had been declared brain dead and was being kept “alive” by artificial means.

Her mother and father were adamant about maintaining the medically assisted life. The lady’s husband was just as adamant about ceasing the medical procedures. The dispute wound up in court and eventually in both the state legislature of Florida and in the House and Senate of the United States. The majority leader of the Senate, a Republican and a doctor, having looked at a video, determined that in fact the patient was sustaining life. Even the President flew back to Washington to sign a bill that had been passed. Eventually the case was resolved in the Courts and the medical reasoning won out.

Now, Republicans and radio and television entertainers are shouting once again that they do not want a health reform bill that is going to put some bureaucrat in Washington between the doctor and the patient. They will not talk about the insurance bureaucrat who makes decisions concerning care a doctor might prescribe.

Do the Republicans in Congress and the entertainers on radio and television really understand what they are supporting by demanding that they do not want government intervening between the doctor and the patient? They are really supporting abortion and the patient’s right to choose. No other conclusion can be drawn from what they are saying.

By advocating laws pertaining to a woman’s right to choose, the Republicans and “pro-life advocates” are really saying that government should be involved in decisions made by the patient with counseling from the doctor. What could be more intrusive?

Now that there is a health reform bill being discussed or screamed about, the Republicans have now started warning that the proposed bill will allow “some bureaucrat in Washington to come between the doctor and the patient. The bureaucrats will make the decisions that should be made by the doctor and the patient.”

The anti-reform people are either not thinking about what they are advocating, they are in the clutches of the insurance industry, or they, like Rush Limbaugh et al., want the President to fail. The Republicans can’t have it both ways. They either want the government to be a partner in the doctor/patient decision making or they don’t. They cannot continue to demand anti-right to choose laws and at the same time say government should not have a say in the doctor/patient relation.

No one, with a straight face, can argue that we do not need to do something about the cost of health care. The sooner the Republicans in Congress accept that they can help reform, the sooner America and Americans will be the better. The Republicans will have to stop being hypocritical in order to achieve it.

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

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