Town-hall meetings. A great American tradition! Too bad it isn’t being followed. What was once a way of connecting with those that represent us to our government, has now become a mob scene highlighted by angry protesters with no desire at all to hear facts or for that matter to allow opposing views to be heard. The issue Du Jour is healthcare. Or is it? More and more it looks as if the issue to these people is Barack Obama himself. They simply can't accept him as president. A great deal of disinformation is being pushed, mainly from talk radio that the bill being constructed in congress provides for; among other things, the promotion of euthanasia. In other words, this is all about killing your grandpa or grandma. After all, they’re old and had their turn at life. It’s time they got out of the way so we can provide health care to those with more time left. The fact of the matter is that the new healthcare bill provides coverage for those people that want to see a doctor for advice on end of life care, and the preparation of a living will. And how is this being spun? A government bureaucrat will be coming to your door periodically telling you that it’s time for you to go and that the euthanasia center will be glad to set up an appointment for you. When would you like to go? I’m sure they can squeeze you in next week. How about Tuesday? Say....10 AM?

This is the world of the "deathers". You’ve heard of the "birthers"? Those are the people that can’t accept that we have a black president and that he must have been born in Kenya. 58% of those that don’t believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States just happen to live in the South. A recent poll says that 74% of Republicans in North Carolina don't believe he was born here. Imagine that! They BELIEVE that he was born in Kenya, because they’ve seen the forged birth certificate that say’s so, and once they believe something, well, you aren’t likely to get them to question their beliefs regardless of all the factual evidence to the contrary. Now we have the "deathers". They believe that the government wants to throw granny from the train. And who is ginning up this fear and hatred? Well, there is a very strong profit motive in this healthcare issue that is at stake. United Healthcare, which happens to be my very own insurance provider, is spending $12.6 million to defeat this measure. Stephen Hemsley, the CEO for United Health Group received 13.2 million in 2007. $3.25 million in 2008. The total value of his unexercised stock options comes to $744,232,068. In 2009 Hemsley exercised $127,001,281. Mr. Hemsley is clearly a billionaire, and I’m sure his healthcare comes at no cost to him. It’s likely part of his compensation package.

There is obviously a financial incentive to deny people payment for needed medical care. With United Health, there is a deductable which varies with each plan. That will depend on the plan your employer is using. The less they have to pay out, the greater the profit. The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company reported second quarter net income of $859 million, or 73 cents per share, compared with only $337 million, or 27 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Last year’s results included a pretax charge of $922 million, or 47 cents per share, however. That’s a 155% profit! Revenue jumped 7% in the latest quarter to $21.66 billion from $20.27 billion, helped by higher premiums and price increases. My premiums went up. They will continue to go up. So will yours. The more profitable his company is, the more money Mr.Hemsley receives for making it so profitable. My own representative has received $3.3 million in campaign contributions from the Finance,Insurance, and Real Estate lobbies. He isn't representing me. He's a paid representative of the insurance companies.

Frankly, I’d like to be able to have the option of taking the profit motive out of my health needs. The idea of somebody making tons of money off of my or anyone else’s illness is repugnant to me. It kind of makes me think of a vampire sucking your blood for his own benefit. Does this make me a socialist? If you don’t like vampires, you’re a socialist?

According to Rush Limbaugh, it’s worse than that. It makes me the equivalent of a Nazi. A woman protesting Democratic plans for health care reform was captured on camera holding up a sign of a Swastika, with the president's name below it, encircled and crossed out by a red line. The implication is that Obama is a Nazi. Where did she get this idea? Real people suffered unspeakable horrors under the Nazi regime. Comparing Obama to Hitler and the Healthcare bill to the Holocaust is insane. It completely diminishes what was done to people under the Third Reich.

The AFL-CIO is now planning on sending out their people to counter the demonstrators at the town-hall meetings. In New Hampshire where the president was speaking, a man went to a town hall meeting with a loaded gun strapped to his leg. What happens when these emotionally charged opponents come face to face? I can only hope that if you’re planning on attending one of these town–hall meetings, that you have a good health care plan