By Josh Rumage
Staff Writer

Everyone gets sick occasionally. But nowadays with the battle over health care in Washington, D.C., it may not be a good time to fall ill. For the last few months, there has been national debate on health care and how it can be reformed. Also, there has been talk of how it can be made more affordable to those who need it.

So far there has been some progress in conjunction with this. On February 4^th of this year, President Barack Obama signed into effect the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act; an act that provides quality heath care to an estimated eleven to four million children who, prior to the act’s signing, had no health insurance whatsoever. With that, the President also signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act whose goal is protect health coverage for an approximate seven million Americans who “lose their jobs through a 65% COBRA subsidy” as said by www.whitehouse.gov.

This Recovery Act invests approximately $19 billion in technologically archived health files that will help reduce both cost and advance quality as it ensures the privacy of its patients. Also, the Recovery Act provides three things: (1) $1 billion for both deterrence and wellness in order to improve the health of American’s and the cost of health care; (2) $1.1 billion towards research that will be passed onto doctors who will than make healing decisions for their patients by giving them pertinent information on the benefits of their treatments; and (3) $500 million to train and educate the next generation of doctors and nurses.

With the Obama Administration, they hold strong to eight principle ideas in regards of health care. They include: Reducing long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government; protecting families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs; guaranteeing choice of doctors and health plans; investing in prevention and wellness; improving patient safety and quality of care; providing affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans; maintaining coverage when someone changes or loses their job; and ending barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The problem with all of that is because President Obama is a Democrat; he will carry through his own ideals on heath care in a way that he thinks will be making things better when it actually may be more of a burden. According to the University of Harvard website, Democrats are generally “more dissatisfied” with that system as they are cited to have expanded coverage for those who are uninsured for, in their minds, it was the most “important form of health care”.

As a Republican, I can honestly say that within my party, we view the high price of heath care to be the biggest problem in the system. We see health coverage as the kind of responsibility that must be handled on an individual basis. We also feel the need for self-reliance, meaning that we don’t want a great deal of government involvement.

On top of this, we also support tax incentives as a way of encouraging others to buy their own and not to feel that a lot of insurance is needed. Many Democrats believe that they need a mess of coverage for a number of things. It’s like this: Democrats tend to promote a socialized medical system while Republicans want to leave it alone, letting the free market run itself in that regard. There are exceptions, though, but that’s essentially it. Also, it’s important to understand that the United States already has somewhat of a socialized health care system in Medicare and Medicaid, which is promoted by both parties.

Dr. David Renjilian, Professor and Director of Clinical Training at Marywood University, gave his views on the need for a healthcare reform in his statement, “At present, many Americans do not have adequate coverage for mental health services. This is true even if they are covered by an employer-sponsored plan. Those who do have coverage for such services (including assessment, psychotherapy, counseling, etc.) often must pay larger deductible and co-pays in comparison to other types of medical services (although some new legislation seeks to correct this lack of parity). Health care reform would help expand the coverage for mental health services to more Americans.”

U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fl) gave his views on President Obama’s health care speech in a statement, which appeared in an online article for www.newschief.com on September 10, 2009. Congressman Putnam said in this article, “Substantively, his plan isn’t very different from the bill Americans have debated throughout August. President Obama insists on a government-run health care public option. He still claims nobody would be forced into the plan –something he said before, yet supporters of the public option say it would indeed be the first step toward a government takeover of health insurance. Despite the president’s very rosy view of cost savings, I think most Americans have learned through hard experience to be skeptical of such claims. I want to see an independent and thorough review by the Congressional Budget Office of what the real costs of this plan are going to be. We can still have a truly bipartisan approach to health-care reform, one that addresses specific problems with specific solutions. But that’s not the plan the President outlined tonight.”

At Obama’s speech on September 9, there took place an incident that involved a South Carolina Republican named Joe Wilson who shouted, “You lie” when the President said that his health care plan wouldn’t offer coverage to illegal immigrants. Despite Wilson’s haste apology, both parties in the house that night were livid. At the same time, however, Obama’s speech had a grim persona, in which, he included harsh statements towards his own GOP critics.  He stated admonition of “death panel” alarmists as being “liars,” an implied run off with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and even a warning towards Republicans who want to eradicate his reform. It truly makes you wonder about the dark side of this man and how he may cause great harm to our nation under this important issue.

Health care is something of such a great importance. This is something we all need but how can we get it when its price goes sky-high? If there is to be a change in health care, it must be a change that is beneficial for everyone. Our health is something too important to be jeopardized by a plan that could ruin our lives. It’s time for a change, but not the way President Obama wants it.