Kirk must oppose health-care reform

Two recent events involving 10th District Congressman Mark Kirk prompted me to write this letter:

1. A phone message urging that I ask Mark Kirk to support health-care reform, and

2. A Mark Kirk interview heard on the Don and Roma talk radio program, WLS 890 AM, during which Kirk spoke of his recent trip to China.

Concerning China, Rep. Kirk related China's concern about the American dollar, its worry about the $1 trillion of investment it holds of American debt, wariness that America's 2009 budget deficit has already reached a staggering $1.84 trillion, and fear that the printing of money by the Feds will lower the value of China's $1 trillion debt investment in the United States.

Kirk went on to tell how Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was openly laughed at by Chinese students at Peking University as he reassured them that Chinese held U.S. financial assets were very safe.

The relationship between China's concern about our massive 2009 budget deficit and Obama's push for health-care reform should be obvious. On Sunday, June 7 President Obama announced that he was going to throw himself into the "debate." It is estimated that reforming health care would cost taxpayers between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion over 10 years, yet the Obama administration has repeatedly emphasized that health-care reform is the key to deficit reduction. Obama is also insisting that Congress pass health-care reform legislation between now and the August recess, even though legislators have no idea where to find the money to pay for it.

The centerpiece of the Obama's health-care reform plan is a government-run public plan to compete with private insurers. Since the government always tilts the field in its favor and doesn't need to make a profit, it would only be a matter of time before the federal public plan would drive private plans out of business, leaving only an entirely government-run, single-payer health-care system.

Worth considering is what health care is like in Canada and England, both of whom have a single-payer system: People endure possibly life-threatening waits and delays to see a doctor only to be confronted by rationing based on their "worth to society" as dictated by some faceless bureaucrat.

According to a recent Gallop poll, the majority of Americans are satisfied with their current health plan. The bulk of those who do not have insurance choose not to be covered but by law have access to health care in hospitals and clinics. One third of the estimated 47 million are illegal immigrants. Children are already covered by S-chip.

Health care is not a right. Neither is free paid up life insurance, homeownership, a job or a college education. There are problems which must be addressed with the U.S. health-care system, but America still has the best system in the world. Let's not destroy what we have. Obama's health-care reform amounts to a backhanded way to add a massive new entitlement program to an economy that is already at the breaking point and a government that has admitted it is out of money.

Call Rep. Mark Kirk and tell him to oppose President Obama's government health-care reform plan, which will put this nation deeper into debt and lower the quality of health care for everyone.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff