By Tayler Lord

Health care reform is one of the most pressing issues in Congress right now. Many young people are uninformed about what is going on with the health care debate, so the Hawk Talk asked three seniors to share their insight about the issue.

Let’s start with having everyone introduce themselves and say what political party they’d be affiliated with if they weren’t minors.  This is optional. Rachel Arkebauer: My name is Rachel Arkebauer and I’d probably be a Democrat. Chris Way: My name is Chris Way and I would like to consider myself an independent but I usually tend to lead more towards being a Democrat.
Hilary Hamilton: I’m Hilary Hamilton and I would definitely consider myself part of the independent party.

What do you know about the health care bill that President Obama has presented to Congress?
CW: It was big; around a thousand pages. Jeff Fortenberry had a copy of it at the town hall meeting.
HH: I know it talks a lot about moving into a system that has universal health care with insurance companies woven in there somehow. But everything’s still up in the air and they can’t really come to a solution about it, which is why it’s taking so long.
RA: I think Obama’s still being vague about what he wants from health care reform because he won’t necessarily have a public option but he just wants to get some form of health care passed.
CW: I think with the public option, like you were talking about, he’s going to have to make a lot of compromises along the way.

What do you think of the possibility of universal health care?
HH: I really like the possibility of universal health care. With France’s system, I know the approval ratings are super up there.
CW: I’d say I’d be for it pretty much. I think it’s a good idea but there are a lot of people who are unhappy obviously, so I think it’s important to get everyone’s viewpoints and try to incorporate them somehow. I know that all of them can’t be incorporated but the ones that would have the biggest influence on most people’s lives [should be incorporated].
RA: I think universal health care is necessary because the US is the only industrial nation without universal health care. So we should probably do that because we shouldn’t be denying people coverage when we have the ability to [cover them].
HH: The problem with that, though, is the whole insurance sector of things because obviously it’s their business. For them, it’s a business not something you actually need.
CW: So, if we did get health care reform, are you saying that a lot of people would be unemployed?
HH: Well, not necessarily unemployed but the insurance people wouldn’t still have their companies.
RA: Well I think, because insurance companies have a monopoly now, that we have to create competition.

How do you think Obama’s bill will do in Congress?
HH: I think it will take a very long time to get everyone to agree on everything. I’m sure things will go well but there are still so many knots that the government will need to work out before it even becomes a possibility to go through.
CW: As you said, it’s going to take a long time for everyone to approve of a system. But not everyone, I don’t think, is ever going to approve. There’s always going to be somebody arguing against it or somebody trying to not let it pass in Congress. But, like Hilary said, it’s just going to take a very long time for the majority of people to approve a system.
RA: I think Obama will probably sign a health care bill even if it doesn’t have a public option. He would go with Baucus’s plan it seems most likely right now.

Speaking of Baucus [Sen. Max Baucus D-MT], what do you think of his proposed bill?
RA: It’s the health care bill that doesn’t have the public option on it so I don’t think it would go far enough to help create that competition. But it would definitely have some good things like it’d stop denying people based on preexisting conditions. It’d definitely fix those problems.
HH: I think his plan will just kind of open a lot of people up to the problems in the health care system right now and get people educated that we do need some kind of reform. But the question after that is to what extent should we reform our current system?

Do you have anything else to say that you think people our age should know?
CW: I think it’s important to keep an open mind with this subject. We don’t have to be very radical on it. I know when several of us went to go see Jeff Fortenberry, he seemed very closed minded about other options and he seemed very pro private health care. And yes he is entitled to his beliefs, but I think it’s important for adults and students alike to keep an open mind because this is an issue that will affect us all when we are older. And it’s important for us to stay informed and have some knowledge about what’s going on.
HH: What I think is that, even though we’re young and we can’t vote, we still need to stay on top of things because once it’s our time to know about these issues it’s going to be too late to get caught up if we wait until that point.
RA: I would also say that it’s important to keep informed and not good to have death panels.