How exactly having such a high national uninsured rate impacts you – your family, your savings, your wallet. We all pay a “hidden health care tax” - a deceptive terminology because its not a tax, but rather the portion of your annual health insurance premiums used to cover uncompensated care rather than you, or your families, health.

Recently, there has been some controversy concerning the number of uninsured Americans. To be honest, there is some basis for this confusion, though some groups and individuals have blown it far out of proportion.

A large number of recent polls show that: "most insured Americans are satisfied with the quality of the health care they receive" (ABC); most insured Americans say that they are satisfied with the cost of their own health care (ABC); and that most Americans are satisfied ("very" or "somewhat") with the quality of the health care they receive (CNN). Perhaps the surprising aspect of this is that at the same time most polls show that the majority Americans also state they understand the need for national health reform (Kaiser Family Fund).

By Susan Wilder, MD. On a beautiful fall day in Washington, DC, President Obama convened over 100 physicians and medical students in the White House Rose Garden to emphasize physician’s role in healthcare reform and call us to action. Physicians, selected due to our efforts on health reform over many years, came from every state of the union, representing multiple specialties, with diverse backgrounds and even more diverse opinions. Despite our differences, we all agree upon the need for meaningful comprehensive healthcare reform this year as our collective “patient,” the healthcare system, is gravely ill with systemic diseases that have festered for far too long.

As early as 1911-1912 leading national voices such as Theodore Roosevelt and the AMA were calling for a new health care infrastructure that would provide health insurance to all Americans with a particular focus on working class Americans. Organized opposition from other physician organizations and conservative elements stymied these efforts. One of the leading arguments used was that the health reform efforts were an attempt by the German Emperor (Kaizer Wilhelm II) to take over America.

There is a reason we are so subject to over-the-top scare tactics when it comes to health reform. It works - and it has worked since the first major national health reform effort in 1915. In fact, we can easily track every single health reform debate over the past century by the fact that opposition to reform has always used the same arguments.