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Let’s focus on the positive

Posted by: Erin Kelly on Aug 19, 2009

Lately it's been hard not to get swept up in the town hall drama. It seems like every time you turn on the news you hear a small, yet very vocal, group of people parroting rumors intended to squash health reform. While it's important to do what we can to combat the lies and misinformation coming from the opposition, it's even more important to focus on the positive in health care reform... and there is plenty.

Nick Beaudrot at Donkeylicious created an easy to read flow chart for those of you who are visual learners:

The flowchart makes a complicated subject easy to understand and aims to answer the question "What will health care reform do for me?"

For Americans with job-based coverage, there will be better protections for their insurance plans. Americans who make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to purchase insurance in the private market, will receive subsidies to help purchase coverage. And those currently eligible for Medicare and Medicaid will remain eligible for this coverage.

 People who need help will finally see some relief, and people who are content with their coverage can keep what they have - with even more protections in place.

Ezra Klein had this to say about it.

And there's more. Families USA's Ten Reasons to Support the Health Care Reform Bills details the top reasons why reform will benefit the American people. Here are just a few examples:

• An expansion of Medicaid will result in coverage for more than one-third of the uninsured (more than 17 million people).

• Limits on out-of-pocket spending will protect middle class Americans from the catastrophic costs associated with illness.

• A regulated marketplace that will clamp down on insurance company abuses so that no one can be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

These are all remarkable advances in a system that has remained broken for far too long.

Without any real insight to offer, the opposition will continue to distort facts and do whatever they can to protect their own interests. We will continue to bring you the truth: Health reform will help millions of people get the coverage they've previously been denied. Help us spread the facts. The American public has waited long enough for a health system that works.