Dear Editor,

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in Blanco County who didn’t have health insurance did? Wouldn’t it be great if we all had health insurance like the Congress awards to themselves? Wouldn’t it be great if a 45 or 50 year old guy with a wife and two kids happened to lose his job and still had health care coverage? Think about the load that would take off that family. Wouldn’t it be great if a single mom didn’t have to worry about taking care of her children’s health? Wouldn’t it be great if all the ranch hands in Texas had health care insurance for themselves and their families?

Well, you get the picture and all of this could come about if the administration gets their health care reform bill.

Remember, most of the opposition is being funded by the insurance industry, which did the same thing to try to stop the passage of Medicare back in the sixties. And despite all the inflammatory and untrue statements being made, there are very few people screaming “socialism,” who are giving up their Medicare cards and returning social security benefits.

Whether we like it or not, we would not have the society we have without government assistance.

14,000 people per day are losing their health insurance. Most small businesses cannot afford to provide health insurance for their employees. Health care costs are rising steadily, forcing people to give up their insurance. And what about all those who just simply can’t take their children to a doctor because they don’t have the money.

There are many who feel that they don’t have a vote in Congress any more because the lobbyists are buying our representatives, and yet both Democrats and Republicans are saying that we need health care reform. It would be hard to vote for anyone who enjoys the benefits of health care insurance and still denies that right to the less fortunate.

We need to support a program that gives every US citizen the same benefits as government employees, postal employees, Congress, and our veterans. This is the time to get it done.

Neil C Swann

Blanco, TX