We're seeing the power of the 'Big Lie'

I have often been interested in the concept of the "Big Lie." Dialing around the radio in Pittsburgh I hear it over and over. The government wants to take over your health care and kill your mother. We're headed for socialized medicine. We'll be like the French!

I use "socialized medicine"; so does my mother. It's called Medicare. My brother also uses "socialized medicine." It's called the Veteran's Hospital in Durham, N.C. I use the same doctor I have used for 20 years. So does my mother. I receive excellent care, as do they.

Also interesting is that when our senators or representatives have tried to explain our health-care options recently, they have been shouted down and been treated rudely. It's as if these people are saying, "Don't give me any information. It might not jibe with what Glenn Beck told me."

The tragedy is that when the Big Lie is told often enough, many people begin to believe what the insurance lobby is spending one-and-a-half million dollars a day to tell us: "Your present system is wonderful. America has the best health-care system in the world." Anyone with a computer can look up the World Health Organization and find that we are lower than many other countries in life expectancy and high in infant mortality. We actually rank about 37th in the world. We do have excellent hospitals, especially here in Pittsburgh. But what good is a hospital when you can't afford it?

George W. Bush said anyone has the availability of health care, just go to your local emergency room. Do they do colonoscopies?

 

MARTHA HART SWEENEY
Upper St. Clair