Two Excellent Articles about Health Care Reform

I saw two excellent articles about health care reform today. The first and more important comes from Salon.com and debunks several common myths about health care reform. The second comes from Politics Daily and is called "Why a Doctor in Congress Has No Health Insurance."

The Salon article, "Obama wants to kill your grandma," explains five right-wing myths about Democratic proposals for health care reform, and then debunks them. Spread the word! The debunked myths are:

1) Democrats want to kill your grandmother
2) The government -- i.e., you -- will have to pay for abortions
3) Obama will ban all private health insurance
4) The government can't possibly run a healthcare program
5) Unlike private insurance, government bureaucrats will ration care

The second article, Politics Daily's "Why a Doctor in Congress Has No Health Insurance, is the story of Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI), MD. According to Kagen's website, he "is triple Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology." During his freshman orientation as a new Congressman after the 2006 midterms, Kagen was presented with a wide array of health insurance options from which to choose. "If you can make that same offer to everybody I'm representing, then I'll accept it," he said. Alas, the thugs that are plaguing town hall meetings screamings across the country refused to let even this principled, qualified professional speak at a recent event, screaming and thundering as if they were the only Americans with the right to speak and forcing many elderly constituents to cover their ears, denying them the chance to ask questions about just what is in the proposed bills and how it will affect them.

(On another note, this post is number 666 here at the Wayward Episcopalian. Oh noes!!!)