Long before Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, health care reform has been a major focus of  dinner table debates. Yet the concept probably wouldn’t have even crossed the minds of our Founding Fathers. In fact, the idea that a citizen’s health care be governed or paid for by the federal government would have completely blown their minds. Governmental health care just wasn’t on the table throughout  most of the history of the United States.

Not until the 20th century did world governments really start to provide subsidized health care for its citizens. Indeed, this type of health care coverage has been a part of life in Europe and South America for many years, but (for several reasons) has never caught on here in America.

During the Clinton Administration, one of Hillary’s pet projects was affordable health care for all Americans. The American people were really interested in the plan, but it could never get off the ground. It could have been because the Congress had a Republican majority and would not let such an expensive project take seed. It could also have been the big insurance companies paying for ads against national health care or spending donations to make sure the reform never happens. Whatever the reason, the Clintons’ push for health care reform was never implemented into society.

Under the Obama administration, many of these roadblocks have been eliminated. There is a Democratic majority in Congress (who are almost salivating to vote yes) and the big insurance companies are now for the idea.  But now we seem to have an even bigger twist in the plot for nationalized heath care:  more and more of the regular citizenry are against the plan.

Town hall meetings where only a dozen would attend before are now being mobbed by hundreds of people who are against the federal government touching their health care at all. People who are angry about the idea of national health care reform are confronting lawmakers who attend these town hall meetings–especially Democrats. In a recent meeting in Philadelphia, Senator Arlen Spector, who switched to the Democratic Party a few months ago, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were assaulted with heckles and boos from the crowd when they were trying to discuss and answer questions about health care reform. And again last week, Lloyd Doggett, a Democratic Representative from Texas, was followed to his car by protesters chanting “just say no.” There’s even an investigation into North Carolina Representative Brad Miller receiving a death threat over health care reform.

The fact that the airwaves are hot with dialogues from conservative speakers such as Limbaugh, Hannity, Levine and others cannot be totally dismissed either. The conservative radio hosts are busy picking out all the problem points with nationalized medicine in other countries like Canada, Great Britain, and France, and these health care horror stories are being consumed and repeated by their listeners. There are websites advertising when and where town meetings will be held, like Conservatives for Patient Rights, which goes to show how much conservatives are fueling the anger in these grassroots meetings. There was also a website dedicated to ways of embarrassing your congressman at these town hall informational meetings (though on August 6th, the operator decided to shut it down).

In nationalized health care systems, it is true that the medical system can get overly bureaucratic, some procedures do not get approved, there can be waiting lines to see doctors, and health care equipment, drugs, and services end up being “rationed”. Yet it is extremely scary to know that Americans do not have the means to be treated when needed unless they have some type of coverage.

According to the CDC there are 46.3 million people in the United States who are uninsured–no private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, nothing. That breaks down as 36.5 million adults and 6.8 million children, and as 14.8% of the entire US population. This is a huge drain on the nation as a whole. These uninsured will put off getting preventative health care or screenings that could catch cancer or other diseases in the early stage. Without treatment, even the simplest of ailments become worse, and the workers’ added sick days cost America millions of dollars. Also, those who are sick and decide to go to work or school anyway just only end up spreading viruses and diseases to their co-workers or classmates. Worried about swine flu? Think about that.

Regardless of your position on this issue, everyone can agree on the basic idea that the current health care system needs some type of reform. Guidelines need to be in place to protect our citizens from rising medical costs, unneeded tests and procedures, and insurance companies denying coverage to save money. In the end, whether or not the federal government even tries in any way, large or small, to change the American health care system’s status quo, all people in America should be able to continue their dream for life, liberty, and the pursuit of health care.

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