The right wing spin machine is trotting out the usual suspects in opposition to health care reform: “it’s socialist”; “you can’t choose your own doctor”; “you’ll have to wait in line”.

Where have these people been? Some other planet?  They are totally out of touch with the lives of average Americans today.  We already can’t choose any doctor — only the doctors in the insurance plan that our employer chooses.  We already have to wait in line and deal with a massive bureaucracy that questions and disputes our needs.  We are already forced to pay into some system not of our choosing — if indeed we even have that option — or face prohibitive costs for the most basic medical care.

This is not just about the basic fairness of offering health insurance to those who may not currently have a 9-to-5 middle class job.  It is about reducing the massive amount of money that the insurance industry sucks out of the health care system — money that does nothing to provide care or support health.  Make no mistake — the people who sit on the telephone with you, arguing about why they won’t pay your claim, are being paid good salaries, and that money is coming right out of your insurance premiums.

We must reject the fear mongering and move into the community of western nations whose systems work much better than ours.  When “social” security was proposed and adopted, the right-wing opposed it as “socialist”.  They always see government as the problem and never the solution.  No wonder that there are no solutions forthcoming when they are running the government.

To reject health care reform because it might help the less well-off is to cut off our nose to spite our face.  It will help the less well-off and it will benefit the middle class.  And the wealthy may have to pay a bit more.  What exactly is wrong with that??