My Opinion of Health Care Reform

I'm for health care reform. There's no denying that we need to do something about health care. Health care has gotten expensive and I'm not just talking about the insurance. I'm talking about costs across the board from pediatrics to family practice. I took my 3 daughters to the pediatrician for their checkups and shots and if I didn't have insurance, I would've had to pay out-of-pocket over 500 dollars. That's not including the costs for blood work that was done on them, which would've been an extra 300 dollars. This was just the cost for the preventative care. My youngest daughter got sick with a simple ear infection. He didn't do anything but look down her throat and in her ears and told me what I already knew. The visit, which lasted less than 5 minutes cost me almost 100 dollars; her medication, about 40 dollars. This is what I paid after insurance coverage. I'm not even going to go into my yearly exam costs...

Every morning, when I get up and turn on the news, I see and hear things about Obama's plan for a public option and I hear the reactions to his plan, both negative and positive. Though, I've seen more negative then positive. Throughout the day, the news stations show the town hall meetings and the reactions of people at the town halls all over the country. My opinion....

Something needs to done and something needs to be done now. There's no putting off this issue. There need to be some serious and straightforward ideas about health care reform, because no matter what is being said, it's for everybody's benefit. Health care reform has been a major issue for many years. Many presidents, before Obama, have promised to do something about health care, and though Bill Clinton tried for a while there, they were unsuccessful because the general consensus was "It cost too much". Well, now it costs more and if it gets put off again, it's going to cost even more down the line. Why wait until something hit rock bottom before trying to fix it? Why wait until health care is so bad and the country is in straits before trying to fix it?

This isn't about providing health care to those that are so-called "lazy" or illegal immigrants. This is about providing health care for the following:

1.) Those that make anywhere between 1200 and 2000 dollars a month, that have 2 kids, 2 jobs, and still have no health care because premiums are too high.

2.) Those that did have health care through their employers, but because they got laid off, they were no longer insured. They then had to go out and find another job that probably paid less and didn't insure.

3.) Those that do work, but isn't offered insurance through their employers, i.e. contract workers employed through temp agencies

4.) The older Americans that can't or don't work because of their age and/or ailment, who's living on Social Security checks that are less than 1000 dollars a month.

The list goes on and on. I'm wanting another option, because the options out there right now is not good enough, hence the need for health care reform. Don't get led astray by talks of costs, socialism, etc. The least anyone of us can do is listen and if you don't like what you hear, ask to hear an alternative plan. I haven't heard about any alternatives to Obama's plan; I'm sure there are some, but for some reason or other, they're not being said. I did hear a few Republicans say something about tax cuts to Americans and tort reform. Now, I'm all for tort reform and I do agree that it needs to be a big part of health care reform, but we're way beyond that point. As for tax cuts, I don't see how that will work for a person that would have to pay month to month for insurance. Tax cuts and tort reform is not enough; the problem is too big.

So what other ideas are there? If Obama's plan is so wrong, present a plan that will benefit the American citizen. We're waiting.