Losing health care.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Comment - United States President Barack Obama's health care reform plans - Viewpoint essay

The health care debate has taken a turn for the worse. Republicans are gaining ground in the polls with their ludicrous scare tactics about government-run health care, even though the elderly, the disabled, our veterans, and some of the poorest Americans all receive such health care already and are generally pleased with it. Today, eighty-three million Americans, 28 percent of the entire population, essentially get single-payer health care.

But Republicans, who were against Medicare and Medicaid all along, don't want people to understand that. Instead, they'd prefer that people wear their ideological blinders so tight that one man barked out at a politician, "Keep the government's hands off my Medicare."

Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats would rather protect the billions of dollars of profits that the private insurance companies are raking in than guarantee that every American has comprehensive, affordable health care, which is our birthright.

It seems likely that there won't even be a meaningful public option when all is said and done, even though that public option was a far cry from single-payer.

By not proposing a single-payer national health care plan, Obama gave up the best arguments and the best blueprints for a reformed system.

Only single-payer would give everyone comprehensive, affordable health care.

Only single-payer would genuinely reduce costs.

Obama's mixed proposal of a public option along with private insurance plans would do neither.

It would be an improvement over the current system, however. It would prohibit insurance companies from denying care to people with preexisting conditions.

It would prohibit them from rescinding policies on technicalities. It would expand Medicaid so more poor Americans could access it. It would require most businesses to offer insurance or to pay a fine. It would expand the federal government's role in health insurance. And, at least in the House bill, it would enable states to experiment with single-payer, thanks to an amendment introduced by Representative Dennis Kucinich.

These are the reasons why some longtime champions of health care in the Capitol, like Senator Teddy Kennedy and Representative Tammy Baldwin, are behind the bill.

B ut it's not single-payer. And it's not universal. First of all, it won't go into full effect for a decade, and even then, there would still be an estimated seventeen million people without health care in this country.

What's more, the Obama plan would prevent...