Journal entry - Lesson 3

Are We the Guinea Pigs?

Congress continues to debate over health care reform in America. They all agree that something needs to be done, but they haven’t agreed on how. While they continue to discuss the issue, health care prices are escalating. This has made it impossible for many families to afford health care coverage and resulted in employers dropping health care benefits for their employees. It is important that whatever heath care bill congress agrees upon, that it will make health care accessible and costs affordable without taking away our freedom of choice.

Our medical technology is one of the top in the world. One young man's diagnosis was prostate cancer. He was scheduled for surgery within 2 weeks. He has had a full recovery and considered in remission. If he had lived in Canada he would not have been able to be seen by an oncologist for 6 months. Since prostate cancer is a fast growing cancer, he may not have been alive today. This is one of the reasons I don’t want to see a national health care plan that is run by the government. Health care needs to be assessable for everyone.

There has to be a way for health care to be available for all Americans that is affordable where the federal government would only need to help when employers are unable to carry a health care plan for their employees. We all need to contact our congressman and input our ideas. Together we can find a solution, one that would benefit everyone.