(WXYZ) - The truth is you don’t have to go far to find a health care reform debate.
At Lafayette Coney Island in downtown Detroit you can find coney dogs and chili cheese fries… and you can find one big truth about health care.
Stephen Clark: So the health care system, what do you think about it?
Andy Collen: Well I think the prices have gotten out of control.
I couldn’t find anyone here who doesn’t believe something has to be done. The question is: what?
Leroy Gates: hmmm… that’s a tough question…I mean that’s a very tough question.
And the answer to that question depends upon who you ask.
Cedrick Williams is uninsured.
Cedrick Williams: Well I’m unemployed. I’ve been unemployed for the last 5 years. I’m looking for employment. I’m glad that Obama’s in office trying to provide health care for all the people who don’t have it.
But Leroy Gates is insured—and happy with what he has.
Stephen Clark: What happens if somebody came in and changed the system and your system changed?
Leroy Gates: I’d be very unhappy.
Stephen Clark: Even if they said it was going to change for the better?
Leroy Gates: I don’t believe that.
So, in an effort to find the truth about health care reform, we went to the people who are trying to write the law.
Democrat John Dingell -- for 50 years he’s been at the front of fight to get health care for every American:
Rep. John Dingell: The stars are in the best conjunction that I can ever remember seeing on this issue. The house the senate and the president all talking in favor of this legislation.
That’s not quite true. Most Democrats in Washington are talking in favor of the legislation. Most Republicans have grave concerns.
Republican Mike Rogers of Brighton has found himself at the front of the debate by virtue of a YouTube video… with 5 million hits and growing fast:
Stephen Clark: How did you end up the darling of YouTube? How’d that happen?
Rep Mike Rogers: You know, Id’ like to tell you it was a Churchillian type speech. It was just that I expressed it without notes in the opening days of the debate and the message caught on.
So between these two leaders of the debate—we’re going to track down some truths about health care reform… the most seemingly basic is just how many uninsured Americans there are.
Rep. John Dingell: I can give you this number -- it’s about 47 million.
Rep. Mike Rogers: They estimate that there are about 47 million Americans uninsured.
But, while both men agree – the truth they need to deal with is buried somewhere within that 47 million. Because that number includes people not covered by any of the reform proposals.
Rep Mike Rogers: Illegal immigrants, people who make over 75-thousand a year and choose not to have it, there’s about 9 million of those who are already eligible for a federal government program who haven’t sign up yet.
Congressman Rogers insists the real number of chronically uninsured Americans is 7 or 8 million.
Rep. John Dingell: All that is true more or less.
More or less. Because even those numbers don’t factor in the recession—and current unemployment figures.
Still it’s an important figure—because it will determine how much health care reform will cost… which is another truth that’s hard to lock down.
The president insists that whatever congress comes up with won’t add to the deficit…
While that may or may not end up being true—it’s a bit of a misdirection.
With estimates for these various bills running from 800 billion to nearly 2 trillion dollars over ten years, the money will have to come from somewhere.
Rep. John Dingell: For example, the financing in the House is going to be a small tax on individuals who earn 250-thousand, 260-thousand ..and families who earn 350-thousand on adjusted gross income.
But taxing the rich isn’t the only funding source for the president’s health care reform
Rep. Mike Rogers: The reason he says it really doesn’t cost anything is because all these new taxes. You know if you go stay in a hospital bed, there’s a tax on it….you go get an MRI to figure out what’s wrong with you that has a tax on it… you get an IV in your arm for treatment, there a tax on it. The doctor stitches you up; those stitches have a tax on it.
Click here to see Rep. Mike Rogers' You Tube video
Click here to see Rep. John Dingell's Congressional website
