Time for Reason (Editorial)

Where is the calm, reasoned debate over needed health care reform? Maybe we watch too much TV, but so far, all we’ve heard is loud and mostly misinformed outrage that has contributed nothing except to further divide Americans.

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While we can understand some of the fears of people on both sides of the issue, acting like savages is not the way to accomplish anything meaningful.

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That’s why radio and cable TV rabble-rousers have the luxury of having no personal responsibility for their actions. They can work up their audiences and enjoy higher ratings while solving nothing and delaying actual progress. (As a general rule, the strength of one’s argument is in inverse proportion to the number of times you call your opponent a Nazi.)

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The outrage is further fueled by people like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has called protesters at town hall meetings “un-American.” Our very own Sen. Blanche Lincoln used the same word but quickly recanted. The people exercising their all-American right of free speech, even in a somewhat over-the-top way, are not un-American. It’s the people who are deliberately seeking to mislead the public for their own political or financial gain that are un-American. Democracy itself depends on an informed electorate.

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So calm down, people. Nothing has been set in stone. The problems with health insurance in America — both the private system and the public programs already in place — are real and getting worse. Health care is a personal and emotional issue, but insurance is a financial product that must be approached rationally.

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What we now have are several proposals from several committees that our congressional leaders have delayed action on so they can hear from their people back home. But as long as all they are hearing are the people who are shouting the loudest, nothing will be accomplished.

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And that will please the people who benefit the most from the current system, but it won’t help businesses whose insurance premiums are threatening their bottom line and their competitive position. It won’t help the nearly 50 million Americans who are uninsured or their creditors when they have to declare bankruptcy because of medical bills.

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