Poll: Do you support a Public option as part of health-care reform?

As Congress reconvenes, health care reform is on tap to take center stage once again as Obama’s administration tries to push through industry reform legislation designed to level the playing field for American families overwhelmed by the ever increasing cost of private health insurance premiums. 

While our lawmakers were on break, Health insurers, special interests and lobbyists successfully blurred the political landscape at town hall meetings through-out the Nation prompting groups like AARP to publicly denounce their claims and propaganda on their website, Health Action Now. AARP said:

The debate on health reform is dominating the news these days—as it should. We understand why this issue can create such strong feelings, since every person will be affected by the policy choices that are made.

But much of the debate is being driven by special interests that are deliberately kicking up clouds of dust to obscure the facts. So many people are expressing confusion, skepticism, and even fear about what the Obama administration and members of Congress are proposing.

AARP doesn’t want misinformation and fear-mongering to dominate this debate. From allegations about rationing care to wild reports of government-sponsored euthanasia, the rumors just keep getting crazier. AARP wants to help you find the facts about what health-care reform will mean for you and your family.

We owe it to ourselves and our famililes to be informed about health-care reform. Based on what you know now about the proposed legislation, do you support a Public option?

Thanks for sharing your opinion. After the fold there is an excerpt from another article over at  AARP that may interest you especially if you are currently on Medicare.

SPIN METER: Once Medicare’s foe, GOP now boosts it

Weren’t Republicans against Medicare before they were for it?

It’s a question vexing Democrats in the fierce battle over President Barack Obama’s push for a health care overhaul as the head of the Republican Party has portrayed the GOP as the lone bulwark preventing deep cuts to the popular, government-run health plan for older people.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a party whose leaders tried to slash billions from Medicare more than a decade ago and have assailed the program as a wasteful entitlement. None other than Ronald Reagan, a hero to Republicans, warned in 1961 that creation of Medicare would push the country toward socialism.

The new GOP posture may be politically savvy given older Americans’ fears of major changes to Medicare, which were among the concerns widely on display at angry town hall meetings across the country last month. But the new stance also contradicts the party’s long history of skepticism toward government-run programs and Republican concerns about the long-term viability and health of the Medicare system.

The Republican National Committee recently launched a new campaign, “The Seniors’ Bill of Rights,” that pledged to prevent cuts to Medicare and protect the elderly from health care rationing based on age.

“Let’s agree in both parties that Congress should only consider health reform proposals that protect senior citizens,” the GOP chairman, Michael Steele, said in a television ad released in conjunction with the campaign.

“What Steele is getting at is very straightforward,” said Newt Gingrich, a Republican who as House speaker in 1995 proposed cutting Medicare by $270 billion over seven years. “The group Obama has lost most ground with is senior citizens and they are the group most likely to vote. If Michael Steele can consolidate the shift that’s already under way, he’s moving America back to a more conservative government.”

The health care bill making its way through the House would save an estimated $500 billion in Medicare over the next 10 years. To do so, Democrats have sought to cut reimbursements to providers and to limit subsidies for Medicare Advantage, a Republican-backed program that allows beneficiaries to buy insurance plans that offer more generous benefits.

Go here for the rest.