While I believe that Neal Wheeler has the kernel of a good idea in his letter to the editor, he becomes increasingly more ignorant as the piece goes on. His idea that the government can't be counted on to fix everyone's problems is very true. The government can't, in fact, fix everything. Perhaps the government has tried too hard in the past to fix all the problems in American society, but this doesn't extend to health care.
First of all, you can't compare health care to having a bad mortgage, to amassing credit card debt that can't be paid off, to not saving up enough money for retirement, or to not being able to buy a new car. All those things are due, in the most part, to irresponsibility on the part of the consumer.
Health care, however, is not due to irresponsibility, at least for the most part.
Wheeler chooses to focus on the obese and the smokers of the world, as if they are the only ones crying out for health care reform. Many of the people that simply want to be covered want it because they will/do suffer from genetic diseases, or other ailments through no fault of their own.
Take Christina Tucker from the Alligator's editorial as an example. She was raped, and she can't get coverage. Is that her fault? No.
Wheeler says, "You can get in shape or stop smoking," in response to the cries for a public option. What Wheeler doesn't realize, though, is that it is more than simply changing to a healthy lifestyle. Sometimes you need legitimate help because of things you have no control over.
I'd love to see Wheeler tell people like my brother, a recent college grad who can't afford health care, to shape up and buy his own health care. Wheeler's solution for the poor is that they qualify for Medicaid, anyway.
The minimum qualifications for Medicaid, according to govbenefits.org, are that you must class as low or very low in the income scale. You must also be either pregnant, a parent of, or a caretaker of dependent children younger than 19; be blind; take care of someone with a disability; or be older than 65 years of age.
That doesn't sound like my brother, who is 26 and neither blind, nor a guardian, nor disabled.
The health problems people incur during their lives aren't always the result of irresponsibility, like the credit card or mortgage problems. Health care needs legitimate reform, and the government is legitimately being relied upon to take care of a huge problem.
Paul Murty is an english sophomore at UF.
