I don’t care what your political affiliation is, but the realities of the different views on how to handle our healthcare system is entirely reason enough to not change our White House occupant in this election.

As Paul Krugman, professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University and columnist for The New York Times wrote recently:

“Mitt Romney doesn’t see dead people. But that is only because he doesn’t want to see them, if he did, he’d have to acknowledge the ugly reality of what will happen if he and Paul Ryan get their way on health care.”

And further:

“Going to the emergency room when you’re very sick is no substitute for regular care, especially if you have chronic health problems.”

And this:

“And surely the fact that the United States is the only major advanced nation without some form of universal healthcare is at least part of the reason life expectancy is much lower in America than in Canada and Western Europe.”

Now, there are so many logical and factual reasons why the Romney/Ryan voucher plan will financially break the very people they claim will be helped, that space here does not permit me to even start.

My point is, we all must become clear on just what the facts are around this most critical part of what Romney and Ryan are saying they will put into effect for America’s healthcare system. It will bleed, beyond belief, the very people who need some help in getting consistently good care.

We need to know the facts. We need to be accurately informed. We need to be a nation that, above all else, is compassionately conscious of the health of its citizens and provides a system whereby everyone has the right to receive adequate and affordable healthcare. The voucher system is definitely not the way. We must rework our entire healthcare system, but do it from what we presently have, not from some new plan, which only digs our hole in healthcare deeper and more regressive.

Bob McClellan,

Polson