President Barack Obama’s speach delivered to a joint session of Congress Wednesday galvanized Democrats and Republicans in their positions on the health care debate. Members of both parties are still claiming the high ground in the discussions, either for idealogical reasons or moral reasons.

Whatever your position on health care reforms proposed by President Obama, recent data shows that here in Texas more children are getting health care benefits under the stat’s Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP). That data also shows that more than one quarter of Texans have no health insurance coverage.

Knowing that 62 percent of those who file for bankruptcy in the United States in 2007 had some medical debts included in the filing and that 80 percent of those had health insurance, makes me think that for reforms to have any impact on those who face bankruptcy after an illness they will have to include restrictions on out of pocket expenses for the insured. With the country’s ballooning deficiets, I don’t know that we can afford health care reform now. In the same breath, I am not sure we can afford to do nothing either.

Anyone out there with an opinion? Is health care a right or a privilege?

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