The health care reform debate rages on and on, and with the death of Senator Kennedy I am sure that it will intensify even more. As with many issues that evoke strong feelings there is a lot of information to try and wade through and understand.

HR 3200, the house bill for “reforming” health care, is over one thousand pages long, too long apparently for most of our legislators to read before trying to pass it in the House and Senate. And apparently it is too much to ask from some of our local Democrats too.

In his “Democratic Voices” in his August 25 column in the Signal, Bruce McFarland mocks anyone who believes illegal aliens (or as he calls them “undocumented immigrants”) would be covered by HR 3200 and that there is such a thing a “death panel”. He points out that there is section of the bill that specifies that non-citizens would not be covered by this bill.

And he is right.

Even Democrats would not be so stupid as to clearly state in any health care bill that illegal aliens would be covered by the bill. The words “illegal alien” and “death panels” do not appear anywhere in any of the proposed bills before Congress.

But as with most legal documents the devil is in the details, and in this case one has to read on to find the truth.

While it is true the bill says only citizens will be covered it also says that health care providers will not be allowed to ask for any identification to prove you are a citizen. I’m just a simple guy looking for simple answers, but it seems to me that if you don’t have to prove you are an American citizen before receiving care (except, of course, for emergencies) then anyone, American citizen or illegal alien, will be covered by this bill.

Paid for courtesy of the American taxpayer!

As for “death panels”; again the proposed laws do not use that term. However we could cite the numerous examples from Great Britain and Canada where government agents have denied health care to people because they are too old or have led a lifestyle that is not acceptable to the government (smoked, drank or ate the wrong foods or overate).

But really all we have to do is go Oregon where a woman dying of cancer was sent a  letter by the state that basically said that while we can’t help you with anything that would ease your suffering, we do know of some great physicians who would be willing to help you with your assisted suicide. In other words, die already! We don’t need to waste our time and money on terminally ill patients.

By the way, in that case it was one of those big, bad pharmaceutical companies (you know the ones only interested in profit, not you) that stepped up and gave her the medicine she needed until she died.

Bruce says this in his article, “If you think ObamaCare will put a government bureaucrat between you and your health care, you MAY not be a nut job, but if you think an insurance company bureaucrat whose motivation is maximum profits, is better than a government bureaucrat, whose motivation is fairly covering as many citizens as possible, you’re definitely a nut job.”

Again I am just a simple person, but if anyone believes that a government bureaucrat is doing anything other then looking out for themselves and making sure they keep there job they are a nut job. “Fairly” covering the taxpaying public doesn’t enter the equation.

Both private and public may be bad but if I had to chose, give me the private sector anytime. At least there I have a chance for someone with a heart and with the ability to possibly bend the rules. And a private sector person actually has a chance of being fired if they do the wrong thing. Ever try to fire a government employee? It just doesn’t happen.

Besides, I have dealt with the DMV. Enough said!

Simon Weston- Commentary

Simon Weston is a resident of Stevenson Ranch. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.