Ignorance cause of health care hysteria

Americans love SUVs, Costco and double rolls of toilet paper. It seems excess is the American way. As Obama's health care bill made its final rounds through Senate, a bulky crowd of protestors with a big agenda gathered on Capitol Hill, chanting "Kill the Bill!" True to form, they overdid it.

Most accounts estimate there were 70,000 in attendance. Organizations that sponsored the protest — such as the Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks — however, alleged that the number was closer to two million, because, as we all know, bigger is better. I'm not sure if these numbers included the elephants. Yes, I'm serious; they marched elephants into the Capitol.

Clearly, Washington D.C. has been something of a circus lately. With the passage of the health care bill, Republicans are practically foaming at the mouth with hysteria ­— or early signs of elephant pox. (It's a real disease, look it up.) Frankly, nothing far more intelligent is originating from that particular orifice anyway. And, as every sophisticate knows, a tea party is never complete until someone gets arrested. After continuing the chant of "Kill the Bill" in the House Gallery, two men from Massachusetts were charged with disruption of Congress, a misdemeanor.

This hysteria stems from a term proliferated in association with the bill by Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck: the term "socialism." According to Mark Thompson, the Sara Jane Johnson assistant professor of history who hails from Canada, this health care bill is very conservative. And if it were a horse, Karl Marx would probably shoot it.

"It's basically a plan that covers everyone, but the mechanism by which it does so is through the existing private for-profit insurance industry," Thompson said. "I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but to view it as socialism is a little over the top. And even if it is socialism, why is that such a bad thing anyway? Should the health care industry be able to make profit off of someone's misfortune or illness? What about the insurance industry? Why should that be a for-profit industry? Say the government were the HMO (health maintenance organization), if there were a public option. If their mandate was not to run it for profit, they could take that extra money and reinvest it in health care. Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

Yes, Mark. Yes it would. Another argument toted by "Teabaggers" is the rationing of health care. They fear that the new bill will allow government to exercise control over access to certain procedures and other medical resources. Republican rhetoric would lead one to believe that the government is the only source of this distribution of assets, but free markets are a conductor of rationing determined by supply and demand.

"Health care is currently rationed in the United States, it's just the HMOs that do the rationing," Thompson said. "You can't get any treatment you want; you can't stay in the hospital as long as you want. You need your HMOs permission. It's the same thing in Canada or any other country that has a universal health care system."

Once in effect, the bill will terminate copays, deductibles and Medicare prescription fees, not the elderly. I feel it deserves mention that the Democrats are not assembling "death panels" to off the crotchety population. Contrary to Palin's Twitter activity, the bill does not include a provision for tribunals that cast judgment on one's "productivity in society" and then deny the useless health coverage. In fact, the bill will provide coverage even for those with preexisting conditions. P.S. There is also a provision that allows students to remain on their parents' health plan until the age of 26.

The most revolutionary part of the legislation, however, cannot be found within its 1000 plus pages.

"American patriotism and the American sense of community seems much more focused in a kind of military endeavor sometimes than it does in a sense of community that can come from caring for the weakest people, caring for the sickest people in the community. I think that's something that needs to change," Thompson said.

The health care bill awakens the collective conscience, indicating that the well-being of the nation is the shared burden of all its citizens.