Op-Ed
MDP Chairman Jim Elliott
March 30, 2010
Amid all the fear and confusion being promoted by those who are opposed to the passage of health care reform, one essential question is ignored; “should the good health of Americans depend on how much money they have?” We partly answered that question and set a standard thirty-five years ago when we created a medical insurance program for Americans over 62—Medicare. Not many of us remember what old age was like before Medicare; for many, getting old was something to fear. People over 62 who could not afford medical coverage died earlier than those who could, and often in squalid and horrific circumstances we would not wish on anyone.
Sons and daughters spent their lives and their paychecks caring for elderly parents in poor health, often at the expense of their own children’s well being. The elderly sick without children…well, they were on their own.
So Medicare was not created out of political thin air; it was created because Americans wanted it. It was good for America, and it was good for America because it was good for Americans. Is there anyone today who would prevent their parents from accepting Medicare? Is there anyone over sixty-two who would refuse Medicare coverage?
Today the question is, “why should Americans under sixty-two be less deserving of health care coverage than those over sixty-two?”
In my sixteen years as a Montana state legislator I saw families go bankrupt trying to provide medical care for children with cancer. I saw a young man lose his job because he had a brain tumor that he could not afford to have removed. I saw people sixty-one years old die from treatable illnesses, and people sixty-two get treatment for the same illness and live. These were people who came to me for help, and I did my best to find it for them. The person I most often turned to was Senator Max Baucus who came through for these folks time and time again. He knew then that an American citizen should not have to call a United States senator for help in a medical crisis, and it is no coincidence that he is the one we can thank for getting today’s health care bill passed into law.
I also learned in the Montana legislature that the best way to defeat a proposed law was to spread confusion about what it would do, that it did too much or that it didn’t do enough. I seldom saw anyone who spouted that line come forward with something better.
Now that health care reform has passed, Republicans are doing their best to spread confusion and false information in an attempt to discredit it. This is exactly what Republicans did in 1965 when Medicare became law. There is a time and a place for criticism and debate, but there is never a time for twisting facts and scaring people. The health care bill passed Congress by people Americans elected to represent them, and it passed by playing by the rules. It was also passed, I want to point out, despite overwhelming opposition by what you might call the medical-industrial complex which felt it would cost them money.
That’s fine; it is the business of business to protect shareholders and to make money; but it is the business of Congress to protect Americans and make America a better place to live, and passage of the health care act has moved America in the right direction.
