Montrose - Daily Press

When it comes to the health care debate, it is helpful to look at history. President George W. Bush wanted a prescription drug bill passed. The 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill was a $400 billion expenditure that would provide prescription drugs for elderly Americans-which it has. The Democrats were shut out of the process in developing this bill and there was absolutely no attempt to make this bill revenue neutral. In contrast, the current Congress (controlled by Democrats), have been directed by the President to make the health care bill revenue neutral or he will not sign it.

The Republicans never worried about the debt we would leave our grandchildren when the Medicare prescription drug bill was passed but now, with a directive by the President to pass a revenue neutral bill for health care reform, they and the insurance companies say we are “giving away the farm.”

The opposition to health care reform by Republicans is all about denying the Democrats a legislative victory. The insurance companies in their deceptive advertisements would have us believe that they have our interests and concerns at heart and falsely expound about how much debt we will be in if this “bill” is passed. Until both bills in Congress are worked out in “conference” they won’t even know what they are opposing. The insurance companies are all about the profit margin and they see this reform as threatening their huge profits. My secondary Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance is being raised 12% this year and I’m sure that is to pay for the billions they have spent on false advertisements regarding health care reform.

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All those billions will be well worth it if they can continue to deny insurance to those unfortunate individuals that have pre-existing conditions. They can continue to raise your insurance rates to double digits every year even if, like now, we are in deflation. Meaningful health care reform is a must if our economy is to recover.

Tom Heffernan

Montrose

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