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I'd like to point out just a few of the many false or misleading statements in Jesse Corn's column of Jan. 29 ("PR push by industries torpedoed health reform").
He said "any mention of cutting benefits is met with the most vehement resistance from our older generation." Well, of course senior citizens oppose cuts in their medical benefits, but he has to know the Democrat Party created Medicare in 1965 and until now, always demonized any attempted reduction or limit in benefits.
He says "if those of us younger than 35 or our children will never benefit from Medicare, why should we continue to lavishly fund it?" Mr. Corn should ask the Democrats who created and perpetually defended Medicare why it is suddenly such a bad idea.
Until the current insane Democrat panic over the health care crisis, senior citizens were among the most supportive Democrat constituency. Corn can't blame seniors for opposing a reduction in benefits that Democrats have always used to frighten seniors from voting for Republicans.
While he's at it, maybe Corn could tell us exactly what Medicare changes are actually proposed since most Americans don't know, including all the Democrats in the House and Senate who voted for 2,000 pages of legislation without reading it.
Corn complains "insurance companies routinely discriminate against the unhealthy by refusing coverage." That's only reasonable because it minimizes the cost to their customers who don't have the unhealthy condition. That's the nature of a free market system.
And I don't understand his assertion that "pharmaceutical companies lobby to erect barriers to the drug market via FDA regulations." Why would any drug company prevent the approval of the very products it must sell to earn a profit?
He says, "it has been widely reported that more than $100 million was spent on ads by the medical-industrial complex" with no documentation to substantiate this claim.
If Corn advocates health care reform, he should at least demand something clearer than 2,000 secret pages. Who the heck can vote for what they don't know?
Steve McReynolds
Braselton