After receiving a mailer promoting a town hall meeting in Paso Robles on health care from my Congressman, Bakersfield Republican Kevin McCarthy, I decided to go see for myself what he had to say. He made it clear he is absolutely against any public health insurance option. His mailer states the proposal in Congress “is a risky experiment that could put a bureaucrat between you and your doctor.” Apparently he is fine with our present corporate health care that puts  insurance-company bean counters between us and our doctors.

If public health care is so risky, how come the Institute of Medicine at the National Academies of Science says, “Although America leads the world in spending on health care, it is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage”?

But wait, his mailer goes on to say he is in favor of “common sense” reform to “increased accessibility,” “reduced cost,” and “improved

quality.” So he apparently acknowledges there are problems with our current health care.

What wasn’t clear at the end of the town hall meeting is how he would achieve reform. Does he want more government regulation of corporate health-care insurance or does he just plan to ask them nicely to stop the rapid rise in premiums and increasing denial of coverage? Considering McCarthy’s track record, I think it’s obvious it’s the latter. Wake up, Congressman!