The media are doing a poor job covering the health-care reform issue. We’ve moved on from the sad stories about the uninsured the 40-something million people for whom health care is going to the ER when the fever won’t come down or you feel a lump in your breast.
We’re not focusing on the rising costs and the danger tens of thousands of Americans face when they lose their health insurance, as many recently laid-off workers have.
What’s in the news is what various congressmen or commentators think. Why mess with it? they ask. We’ve got the best health-care system in the world. Yep, you get the best care in the world in America, if you can get it.
A man called Wednesday to tell me if the Obama health-care reforms pass, Americans will have to give up their private insurance. Where did you hear that? I asked. It’s all over talk radio, he said. Why aren’t you reporting it?
Judging from letters to the editor and calls I receive, there are many misconceptions about health-care reform, and a real effort to demonize President Obama. Think about that: He’s trying to do something that would make America better, at least I think so, yet it’s, Stop Obama at all costs.
Then there are the rumors. The Internet is full of them. I did a Google search on health-care reform myths, and got 844,000 results. Faced with that kind of flak, I sympathize with Obama and anyone who believes the health-care system could be better.
Here are a few issues I’d like to see the media cover with more light, and less mud.
Who are the estimated 47 million uninsured? How many aren’t U.S. citizens? How many have jobs that don’t offer group health insurance plans?
Could the public option put all those legal workers in the same risk pool to get a better bang for the buck, regardless of who pays worker, employer, taxpayers or a combination? But also: Who pays?
What does the basic public option health-care plan provide?
Will health-care reform include tort reform?
Is it mandatory? For example, 750,000 Texas kids are eligible for the inexpensive Children’s Health Insurance Program, but aren’t covered because their parents failed to enroll them.
What will reworking our health-care system mean for the private health-care industry, including the impact, if estimable, on the stock market, 401(k) plans, etc.?
What’s the truth about the Canadian system? (Hint: I know some farmers in Saskatchewan who tell it like it is.)
The other night, Obama held a news conference to tout health-care reform, and the New York Times story the Express-News published Thursday was mainly political. That’s unfortunate. Health care, and getting it when you need it, is more than politics.
Proponents of health-care reform need to start laying facts on the table and we in the media should quit covering the issue like it’s the Tour de France. Don’t rush it. Health-care reform, done properly, should give every American what many now lack: a sense of security about the future.
If that takes a year or two, I can wait.
