Creative Writers Online

Why are the idiots on capital hill wasting time to pass affordable health care reform?

The reason they waste time and won't agree to a public option is because they have never been in a situation where they didn't have the coverage they need combined with not having the money to cover what the insurance doesn't pay.

If any of these schmucks were really in touch with their constituents who are struggling to get good medical care because they can't afford it then there wouldn't be such a debate.

It sickens me to no end watching these entitled, rich people waste time with something so important to people who are not so fortunate. I am one of those people. I can't afford to get the care I need so I'm suffering on a daily basis. On top of my physical suffering I get to stress about the medical bills I have accumulated which did not accomplish a proper diagnosis and treatment plan or any form of a solution. Just wasted money that I didn't have in the first place.

If I lived in France, I would be in the hospital until they could determine what the cause of my physical issue is and then form a solution and implement that solution to fix the problem. The entire time I would be in the hospital I wouldn't have to stress about losing my job. In fact, I would be paid a percentage of my income for that time so I would be able to pay bills. My job would be waiting for me no matter how long my solution took to implement. I would return to work healthier and more capable of doing my best work. The best part is that I would not be overwhelmed with medical bills either. My treatment wouldn't cost me a thing.

Why is it so hard for our government to copy a system such as France's? If we were truly as smart as we claim to be we would be doing just that.

I am not proud to be an American much these days. I am too sick and frustrated to agree with political grid-lock. If that's what being American is all about then I think I need to find another country.

Health care is an urgent issue. If nothing is done, the country faces a crisis, within a decade, which will be more traumatic than this severe recession. As the population ages, with the vast majority not caring to maintain their own health, increasingly obese and diabetic, refusing to leave addictions, rising health care costs will lead the country to bankruptcy.

Our choice will not be just losing savings and homes. We may be forced to choose which person dies, because, even though the cure is technically available, neither the country or that person can afford the cure. That person could be a family member or even ourselves.

There are various alternatives, but these pose challenges to the principles of our country. France has universal health care. Even Cuba has universal health care. But do we want a Socialist economy? Are we prepared to pay the same tax rates as the French? Do we want to be exactly the same as Cuba?

Redistribution of exorbitant health care costs does not fix the fundamental problem: rising costs and declining tax revenues as the population ages. Everyone knows the truth: we must live within our budgets. As individuals, as families, as a country, we must live within our budgets. Even though something is possible, if we do not have the budget, we cannot afford it.

For decades, as individuals, families and as a country, we have deluded ourselves that there is an imaginary pool of money, either credit cards, imaginary house prices or government spending, from which we can endlessly withdraw. We've deluded ourselves, that by sitting around, without inventing and making better products, that somehow through tricks and schemes, we can enrich ourselves. Punching the clock, never rocking the boat, we thought we were part of something too large to fail. We knew we were cheating and we thought we could get away with it. We now face the consequences, but yet still don't want to face the truth.

Are we willing to regulate and lower doctor's fees? Hospital costs? Drug fees? Are we willing to set maximum expenditures for individual care? Are we willing to pay for lung machines and decades of long-term care for every person that refuses to stop smoking? And if we do so, are we willing to give from our own health care? Or do we want it all, but pay as little as possible, and ideally nothing? Which is worse: health care or wishful thinking that will bankrupt the country?

Health care is an emotional and personal issue. I do not underestimate the anguish and pain of families facing health problems. I hope that Congress finds and implements a solution this year, taking into consideration individual suffering and pain, but it must face simple basic truths: costs, budgets and limits.

Senate passes historic health care legislation

Unusual Christmas Eve vote symbolic in ongoing debate

updated 5:48 p.m. ET, Thurs., Dec . 24, 2009

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats passed a landmark health care bill in a climactic Christmas Eve vote that could define President Barack Obama's legacy and usher in near-universal medical coverage for the first time in U.S. history.