Look at the reality of our health care

We all love cartoons. No cause-and-effect. Right or wrong. Whoopee.

That's what we'll see in the health-care debate. Remember the swift-boat deal? How a handful of people were computer-multiplied into a crowd of Kerry protesters. How many people - good people - swallowed this hook, line, and sinker?

And guess what? These same people are getting involved in the health-care debate. To cartoonize it. We'll be seeing "crowds" of Canadian protesters, multiplied from a handful of disgruntled people. Ironically, you'll never hear how you are a loved-one may survive without health-care reform.

Remember how, after the Clinton fiasco, those who said they could come up with a better plan disappeared, Whiff.

And the old bugaboo of how poorly the government performs. The post office takes the brunt, but how often have you missed a mail delivery? My only undelivered mail sank in a boat, a private carrier, from Hawaii.

And Medicare? If it wasn't for that, I'd have to sell my house to pay the medical bills. Yes, although poorly represented by a growing share of its private functionaries, HMOs and insurance, that's something to be corrected. That's President Obama's idea of a competing public system, single-payer - all done by Medicare. The private functionaries couldn't keep up. Look at the savings.

My wife died of liver disease. No transplant. She was in an HMO. Did this smack squarely with an event in the movie "Sicko?" An HMO representative attested, before a congressional committee, that the HMO was often more interested in evading medical expenses than healing.

A patent died. Who gained? Whimsically, the rep said, "Well, the company saved a half million bucks."

So after you lose the debate, after you lose a loved-one, where expenses prevailed over healing, who do you blame? That guy who believes more in cartoons than reality. That's who.

Charles W. Atterberg

Hanover Park