Haves vs. Have-Nots

(yes, no, maybe so)

I know, I know ... I have a one-track mind. But just one more rant about health care! Well, one more for today.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll was released today. You can see the entire poll results here.

A few statistics jumped out at me. The quotes below are from MSNBC. My comments are in red:

1. "Americans who have private health insurance disapprove of Obama’s job on health care by a 51-38 percent margin. Those who lack insurance approve of his job, 52-29 percent."

The difference in perspective is very clear. I have friends who have wonderful health insurance, who are completely at a loss to understand why I am so upset about the issue of reform. They used to send me emails ranting about President Obama's plans to "socialize" medicine and tell us all when it is time to die. But then I started sending emails back to them. Now I don't hear from them any more.

2."When read the specifics of his goals for health care -- like requiring insurers to cover those with pre-existing conditions, providing low-income families with subsidies to help them afford insurance, and raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for the subsidies -- 56 percent say they support Obama’s plan. Only 38 percent oppose."

What a difference a little information can make! This reminds me of the Facebook poll that many of my well-insured friends happily participated in -

"Do you want the Big Bad Government to take over health care?"

(Well, ok, it wasn't that blatant - but almost)

The month of August will be so critical, because the nay-sayers will be out in full force, promoting all kinds of misleading information.

~ The government wants to kill senior citizens.

~ We will all be forced into socialized medicine.

~ Aunt Susan will have to wait 17 weeks for her gallbladder surgery.

Instead of listening to this garbage, why don't we all share our stories? Let's explain to our friends what it's like to try to buy health insurance on the open market. Let's think about the choices low-income families are forced to make. Let's consider all the implications of using the emergency room (or, in my case, the self-serve blood pressure machine at WalMart) as our primary care physician.

Let's act like the United, Compassionate, Reasonable, Run-By-People-And-Not-By-Greedy-Corporations, States of America.

Please.

~~~