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Updated: 7:57 PM Jun 30, 2009
National Health Care Debate Hits Michigan
With so many uninsured in the state and nation, would a national health care plan be the answer?
Posted: 5:24 PM Jun 30, 2009Reporter: Lauren Zakalik Email Address: lauren.zakalik@wilx.com |
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Stage four liver cancer is ravaging Janice Arntz's body.
The woman from St. Johns has health insurance, but the costs are so high, she says, that it's becoming nearly impossible to get the treatment she needs.
"I was told if I can't pay for it, to let the cancer take its course and not have any treatment," Arntz says.
Arntz says if this is happening to her and she has insurance, she can only imagine what's happening to the more than 1 million in Michigan without coverage.
It's reason enough, she says, to support President Barack Obama's health care plan, which would offer government-run insurance to those who need it.
"We want people to keep the health care they have if they want to, and we will do that. We will build on the positives and fix what's broken," says Sen. Debbie Stabenow, (D) Michigan.
There's no question something needs to be done to help the tens of millions of uninsured Americans. But not everyone agrees President Obama's plan is the way to do it.
"I don't think a government run health care program is the answer for the U.S.," says Rep. Mike Rogers, (R) Michigan.
Rogers says countries that have government-run health care see longer wait times for treatment or, sometimes, no treatment at all.
Plus, he says, it'll raise taxes for everyone. Some are putting the cost of a nationwide health plan in the trillions.
"We're going to go into tremendous amounts of debt, taxing people to find coverage for 15 percent of people [who don't have insurance] at the expense of 85 percent of Americans who have some kind of coverage," Rogers says. Rogers supports finding other ways to cover the uninsured.
But Artnz sees it as a life or death issue.
"Everyone deserves to have health care," she says, "and to live as long as they can."
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