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The North Wind

The North Wind

The North Wind

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Hannah Jenkins
Hannah Jenkins
Copy Editor

Hi! My name is Hannah Jenkins, and I am one of the copy editors here at the North Wind. I am a sophomore at NMU, and I love all things writing and editing-related. I am proud to be a part of this great...

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The North Wind is an independent student publication serving the Northern Michigan University community. It is partially funded by the Student Activity Fee. The North Wind digital paper is published daily during the fall and winter semesters except on university holidays and during exam weeks. The North Wind Board of Directors is composed of representatives of the student body, faculty, administration and area media.

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Health care needs little improvement

In the Sept. 3 issue of The North Wind, Lucia Lopez wrote a column titled “Obama has right idea about health care” which was in support of health care reform.

I would like to present the other side of the argument; why the current health care reform bill in congress is wrong for America. There are 46 million uninsured people in this country. However, this number is a little misleading.

According to a Chicago Tribune internet news blog on Aug. 3, of those 46 million uninsured, 9.5 million are non-citizens, including legal and illegal immigrants. Twelve million people are eligible for existing public health care (like Medicaid, government run insurance for low income people), and 16.5 million have a high enough income but choose not to purchase health insurance or are temporarily uninsured (for example, they just switched jobs). So out of that 46 million, only eight million Americans would benefit from health care reform.

We should not force this health care reform on everyone when we really only need to cover eight million Americans. Democrats like to claim that you’ll still have a choice in your health insurance, but that’s simply not true; you will eventually be forced on the public health care option by being taxed if you choose not to.

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According to a May 13 Associated Press article, Medicare is paying out more money than it takes in and Social Security is near that. The article stated that Social Security will run out of money by 2037, and Medicare will run out by 2017. If the government can’t run Medicare and Social Security, it’s going to have a hard time with health care for the whole country.

There are plenty of alternatives to universal health care. One is a health savings account. According to the U.S. Treasury, health savings accounts let people save money themselves (tax free) for medical expenses. This allows the individual to make their own choices, without having to worry about an insurance company denying their coverage.

Lopez also said that House Resolution 3200 (HR 3200)wouldn’t add to the federal deficit. But according to the non-partisan
Congressional Budget Office, health care legislation will cost over one trillion dollars over the next decade. With the federal debt at an all time high, we can’t afford this. Part of the democrat’s plan to pay for this is to tax the rich. By taxing the rich, you are taxing many of your future employers. Many small businesses make enough to be taxed higher under this legislation, so they will have to make up for that loss by cutting wages and jobs. Even with all this, the deficit will still rise. The House Ways and Means Committee estimates that HR 3200 will add $1.6 trillion to the deficit over the next 20 years.

A part of health care legislation calls for end of life counseling. Some people fear this will lead to death panels, where the government will decide if a patient will continue receiving health care, to cut costs. As Lopez correctly stated, the bill in the house doesn’t create death panels.

Let’s look at Britain, a universal health care success story by supporters. An Associated Press article on Oct.17, 2008 said that the last Titanic survivor, Millvina Dean, who died in May, was selling her Titanic memorabilia, because the British government wouldn’t pay her nursing home bills. The British government didn’t pay them in order to save money. The bill that American democrats support doesn’t include enough funding, so it’s not a far stretch to say that these kinds of denials could be our future.

We really do have the best health care system in the world. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, U.S. patients diagnosed with cancer have a better chance of surviving
here than anywhere else. The World Health Organization ranks America number one out of 191 member countries for responding to the medical needs and choices of the individual.

America does not need universal health care. It is all about politics. A Rasmussen poll showed that 53 percent of people oppose Obama’s health care plan. We don’t want it, and our elected officials need to listen to us.

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