Reform opponents, answer these questions

A few questions opponents of health care reform should consider:

Have you ever encountered citizens of another developed country who would trade their health care plans for ours?

Are you aware that last year more than 200,000 Americans traveled abroad for affordable health care and the number is expected to double by 2010?

Why does the United States spend more than twice as much on each person for health care as most other industrialized countries, yet has fallen to last place among those countries in preventing deaths through timely and effective medical care?

Why do 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs?

Why are half of all bankruptcy filings the result of medical expenses, even though over two-thirds of those who file for bankruptcy have health insurance?

Why does the United States spend six times more per capita on the administration of the health care system than its peer Western European nations?

Why do we allow the waste of billions on insurance overhead and insurance bureaucracy instead of helping everyone, with and without insurance, by providing upgraded coverage and guaranteeing that it's never lost?

Why are people buying in to fearmongering, biased interpretations and lies about proposed health care legislation?

Why have so many among us forgotten how to engage in civil, respectful, informed debate on areas of disagreement?

Ann Christenson

North Liberty