Let’s start out with healthcare — especially since I now have new first-hand experience due to my fractured heel and surgery. The healthcare that I’ve received has been wonderful, but I’m in that middle-class-employed sector that has health insurance. By the way, we have had bureaucratic problems there, but we’ll leave that for another column.
But why should you, as an LGBT person, support the president’s program of universal healthcare? Simply, it includes the LGBT community, and will create inclusion for LGBT health centers.
But what about that line the Republicans keep tossing out about a separate government plan to cover the uninsured, underinsured and compete with the current insurance and HMO companies? The line is, “It’s unfair for government to compete with private companies and won’t work.” That, my dear readers, is what is called political double-speak.
Those same Republicans have already pushed government control of some healthcare. Anyone recall the Republican bill to give seniors prescriptions through a choice between their insurance company or a government plan? That’s one. The Republicans also passed a bill to give what they call the best care possible since our military deserves it. That’s a government-run program. Then there’s Medicare and Medicaid, both government health plans that both houses of Congress have continually supported.
The truth is, we pay more for healthcare and prescriptions than most of the countries in the world, including for drugs that are manufactured here in these 50 states. So that should tell you who’s getting our healthcare dollars, and answer who the Republicans are answering to. Isn’t it time for us — and Congress — to say no to the pharmaceutical and HMO lobby?
Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He can be reached at [email protected].