They Told the Same Lies About Medicare in the 1960s

When you listen to the health insurance industry sponsored politicians and anti-health reform propaganda use terms like "socialized medicine," "government takeover of health care," "rationing," and other scare tactics such as these when talking about health care reform (the "public option" in particular) you have to remember that these same interests (right wing politicians bought and paid for by the health insurance industry) made the very same arguments against Medicare when it was first introduced in the 1960s.

They were wrong then, and they are wrong today. The "public option" would be a great health care improvement for just about everyone in the United States from the people (obviously) to businesses (they are paying huge sums of money to the health insurance industry to cover their employees.) The only people who should fear the "public option" is the health insurance industry itself. Right now they are able to get away with murder (figuratively and one could argue literally.) The cost of health care is skyrocketing while the health insurance industry's profits are going through the roof. To say that something is wrong here is an understatement.

Did you know that rescission is common practice for health insurance companies? What does that mean? Quite simply that as soon as a customer gets very sick (ie: expensive) they look for any way they possibly can to get out of the contract and cut their customer's care so that they can save money. It's been estimated that one half of the people who get seriously sick or injured end up losing their health care coverage because of this policy. And when the industry was asked about ending this practice at congressional hearings this year they refused to ever do so.

I think this is such an important topic that is almost never brought up seriously in the mainstream media. What's the point of having having health care insurance if there's a 50% chance you'll lose it when you need it most? Think about that! When you fight against health care reform, this is the disgusting system you are fighting for. A system that enriches a few fat cats at the cost of the health of the American people.

Our health care system is in dire straights. We are 37th in the world in health care. 50th in life expectancy. Does that seem reasonable for a country as wealthy as ours? The only thing that the US ranks #1 for in regards to health care is how much we spend on it. We are spending more money than any other country for far less results. Why is that? Because of our private health insurance dominated health care system. It must be changed in a major way.

Any reform less than the "public option" is simply unacceptable. If we allow the insurance companies to stay in control of the health care system our country is doomed to bankruptcy and failing health. It is time that we put the health of our people as a priority above the billions of dollars of health insurance industry profits.

Remember when you read the lies spread about the "public option" that these same lies were spread about Medicare in the 1960s and they all turned out to be baseless. Now there are now Republicans willing to vote to destroy the Medicare system. In fact they recently all voted to keep the system. So when they talk about being against "government health care" you know that they are full of it. They all support it. And once the "public option" passes and the American people love it (which they will) they won't be able to vote against that either.

The "right" has consistently been wrong on all of these big issues. They were wrong about Medicare in the 1960s and they are wrong about the "public option" in 2009.