Healthy choice on reform debate

Are we speaking too soon, or have the town hall critics finally fatigued from all their shouting and bullying? The health care debate seems to be tamped down to a level where we actually can hear the issues.

We hope that continues to be the case. As this legislation moves through Congress, we need a fully vetted, healthily debated push for reform. While it might be easy to say our current system is broken, too many are clinging to this flawed notion that if it’s just going to get more broke, don’t fix it. But instead of fighting for no fix, we should be fighting for the right fix. That’ll take checking emotions and biases and taking an honest assessment of the problems plaguing the system.

In Friday’s edition of the Telegram, staff writer Mike Hixenbaugh looked at recent census data detailing the number of uninsured Twin Counties residents and what those figures mean to advocates of health care reform.

Roughly 15 percent of residents in the Rocky Mount metro area were without health insurance last year, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 survey showed. In surrounding communities, that figure is even higher, Hixenbaugh reported, largely because of the number of impoverished area residents receiving public health care. Including senior citizens, less than 53 percent of Rocky Mount area residents are covered through private health insurance, the survey said.

The figures zero in on the crux of the problem. It’s not with the poor, who already have public health care, and it’s not with the half who can afford and prefer private coverage. Where our current system does the most damage is in the middle. Those who make too much to be considered poor but not enough to be able to afford health insurance are stuck without any real options. And guess what happens when they get sick. They get treated, and those costs are passed onto the insured who then see their premiums go up.

Fixing health care isn’t about taxing the rich to give the poor another handout. It’s not about socialism or killing private business. It’s about giving the middle class a fair shake. Let’s keep that in mind as we move forward in the debate that’ll define us for many years to come. What values will we say are worth protecting? If the answer is corporate greed, then by all means let’s bend over backward to do what we can for the insurance industry. But if the answer is that American work ethic we all pride ourselves in, then perhaps we should be looking out for the interest of the middle-class worker who can’t afford a broken back from outrageous medical bills.