Scare tactics can't derail reform

Health-care reform will kill old people. It will ration care. It is socialized medicine that will hurt Medicare, is too expensive and will let the government make life-and-death decisions for you. Oh, and it will also keep you from getting the care you need.

That about covers it - did I miss anything?

The spin machines and "swift boat" special interest groups are at it again - using myths, misinformation and scare tactics like these to derail health care reform.

And it's no surprise - their business isn't fixing the health care system or addressing any real issues, it's waging partisan political warfare, deceiving and scaring the masses in the process.

The real victim is the American public. These efforts make it harder to get the facts and stand in the way of fixing our current health-care system for simple political gamesmanship, nothing more.

Here's a fact, most of us know someone who is struggling with the broken health care system - a neighbor who can't afford their prescription drugs, a friend struggling to keep pace with medical costs, a relative who can't get insurance coverage due to a pre-existing condition, a son or daughter just out of college, with no job and no health care. For most of us this issue hits close to home.

AARP supports the overall efforts to pass a health-care reform package this year - and we have specifically endorsed efforts to close the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap, or doughnut hole.

We can't let health-care reform get derailed by the scare tactics of the few, aimed at deceiving the masses. And for the facts, go to healthactionnow.org, and get the facts straight.

Bob Gallo

AARP

Illinois State Director

Chicago