What has really been the will of the people with respect to health carein the US?

[caption id="attachment_20457" align="alignleft" width="200"] Senator David Vitter of Louisiana is opposed to Obamacare[/caption]

Editor---Obamacare became law on December 24, 2009. Was it the people's choice and how has it happened so many people are now afraid of or against it?

In 2007 a survey was made of the American people who, given alternatives that included purely private insurance through total government-funded programs to which people would contribute, folks chose the latter, according to the results of the Pew Forum.   This is what was said at the time:  "A government guarantee of universal health insurance, even if it means raising taxes, continues to attract broad support. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) favor such a proposal, while 34% are opposed. Public support for government-backed health insurance was somewhat greater at a comparable stage in the 2004 campaign; in early September of that year, 66% supported this proposal, while 26% were opposed."

However, despite this majority, when it came to following the people's will, concessions and compromises had to be made, with the bill passing in 2009 and various compromises made in 2010 to reduce some of the costs and implementation schedules.

But as the bill proceeded, even during its early stages, there were those who strongly opposed it. Many of these people were individuals like Representative John Fleming of Louisiana and Senator David Vitter, also of Louisiana.

Fleming is now an outspoken opponent of Obamacare. At a meeting in Natchitoches, Louisiana in 2010 he maintained he thought it was pure socialism, while at the same time he declared that an option might be for Louisiana to secede from the union rather than accept Obamacare. An individual in the audience at the forum given in one of the city's flagship meeting rooms, had asked a question about the proposed health care bill and what people could do who opposed it. Fleming spoke of the banking system and reminded people that Louisiana had effectively withdrawn support.

What he failed to mention was that was one of the motivating factors for the American Civil War.

Prior to the passage of Obamacare in late 2009, David Vitter hosted a number of forums, one of which was held in Shreveport, Louisiana. There a large auditorium at a religious college was selected. Buses parked outside the building included adults from a facility for the mentally challenged, who were given signs that clearly articulated extreme negative response to Obamacare.

A reporter asked these individuals what they knew about the bill. The response was, “It's Communism.” And how do you know?was the next question. “Because that's what it is, and my teacher said so.”

Inside the auditorium, the hall was packed from front to back, and as the forum proceeded catcalls were loud and long with any mention of opposition to Senator Vitter's view, that it was a socialist plot and that most people neither needed nor wanted insurance. The forum was compromised of medical and business people, all of whom agreed that folks didn't want insurance in any form. All questions to the forum were vetted by Senator Vitter, who was monitoring the discussion. None were allowed who opposed the views of SenatorVitter and the members of his forum.





A reporter, who had read the bill when it was made available online, was prepared with questions, none of which were allowed by the moderator. After the presentation, the forum speakers when asked admitted they had not read the bill, just a few selections instead. Nor had Senator Vitter.

Does the opposition represent the will of the people? In view of the 2007 surveys, it does not. And because few people have read the bill, including government spokespersons who offer opinions in the media, then how can the will of the people be determined? Have most of the people read it, when it was announced to be online?

Given the lack of information, and the representative government that passed the bill into law, as is supposed to be the duty of that government, then how can anyone judge it is or is not the will of the people then or now? It was the will of the people in 2007 to have a government-funded program, the kind that exists in other developed countries, and it is likely that people have been frightened sufficiently to be more confused than against anything.