There’s a lot of sensationalism in health care reform language: death panels, rationing care, government-run health care. These are all examples of sensationalism in the health care reform debate that have been causing a lot of angst. The thing is, they’re based on misinformation. There are no death panels in health care reform. Anyone who wants to think the government will choose to kill of granny is not looking realistically at the current health care environment. Nearly 25% of Americans are already covered by government-run health insurance. That amounts to around 75 million people. Even with financial concerns looming, there haven’t been any death panels to date.

An article by Noam N. Levey in the LA Times addresses the issue of care rationing. The article clarifies that we all experience care rationing. For example the article states, “private insurers and the federal government put a variety of limits on what kinds of medical procedures, imaging and drugs they will pay for. Millions of people with preexisting conditions face even more limits, because private insurers refuse to sell them policies.” However, one of the goals of health care reform is to produce rules on how to reduce care rationing and to expand access to more effective treatments.  For example, the health care reform bill would not allow insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

A recent Gallop Poll shows more Americans are gaining coverage through government health insurance plans and less Americans had health insurance through their employers. As this article states, “when people can’t afford health insurance, which many can’t, they turn to the government.”