Seven things I know about health bill

House Democrats passed a health care bill that many, many Americans have expressed neither need nor desire for.

I have spent a good part of my adult life without health care and without dental care. I had a life-threatening illness three times in eleven months and had to pay those medical expenses myself. This included the cost of the basic doctor's office visit, X-rays, in-office treatments, plus the full cost of prescriptions. It is quite expensive-especially when you are not making much money, anyway.

Having seen what it is like to not have health care, I went forward and found a job that does have it, plus dental care.

There now is a 2,000-page version of the health bill. I cannot imagine what is in it that required 2,000 pages, but I do know seven things: 1) I like my current health insurance coverage just fine. I do not want to lose it or change it. 2) Social Security is broke. 3) Medicare is going down in flames. 4) We have a national deficit that shows extraordinary fiscal irresponsibility - and I do not care which party is responsible for it. 5) If we are about to lose Social Security and Medicare, what on earth makes us think we can put forward another expensive bill? 6) People who have lived in Canada, Germany, and England all tell me that our health care in this country is better - not perfect, but better. So why does this administration desire to give us the sort of system that frustrates the residents of those other nations? 7) The House has apparently lost its mind, or its moral compass, or any semblance of common sense.

Let us hope and pray the Senate is in better shape, and that they send this bill into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

Robin Sheffield

Naperville