To the Editor:

Once again the government is assuming that we senior citizens are too old and too stupid to know that universal health care will benefit only the government by giving it more control. The nine most terrifying words in the English language: “I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”

Be afraid —be very afraid.

It is also very important that we have an understanding of the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis –a deceptive, back-door approach to get what you want when you know you can’t get it honestly. Invent a “crisis” and then create the circumstances to make that “crisis” happen.

Look at what has happened in only the last five months. The stimulus bill, the omnibus bill, the budget and the bailouts were all “crises” that had to be fixed immediately or the world would end. They happened, things got worse and the “crises” just keep on coming –with no jobs and no money to pay for what has already been done and what the President still wants to do: universal health care, amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, cap and trade, climate control and more.

Do not be scammed by universal health care, another manufactured “crisis” the president calls, “a ticking time bomb” that has to be fixed now. We will not be able to keep our doctors or our current health plan. A single-payer (government-controlled) health care system will squeeze out and destroy all other providers. Part of the “savings” for the government will come from controlling the quality of our health care –what we get, when we get it and whether or not we get it at all —especially in the “last years of life.” Some bureaucrat at a Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) will make the decisions for our health care based on Comprehensive Effectiveness Research (CER).

The most expensive form of health care is the Emergency Room, confirmed by the president: “…we know that when somebody doesn't have health insurance, they're forced to get treatment at the ER, and all of us end up paying for it.”

Illegal aliens use emergency rooms as their regular, primary health care provider and they do not pay for it –something American citizens are not allowed to do. Hospitals are required to get specific documentation before treatment is given and, by law, illegal aliens can receive treatment only for a life-threatening emergency. Hospitals treat illegal aliens anytime they show up, for any complaint they have; and the hospital chooses not to ask for the required documentation.

The president has promised Hispanic special interest groups that he will pass comprehensive immigration reform, granting amnesty (path to citizenship) to 12 to 20 million illegal aliens already here and to many millions more of their family members. The National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. (their words), issued a press release strongly urging President Obama and Congress to make every effort to ensure that health care reform (universal health care) cover illegal aliens.

According to analyses by the Center for Immigration Studies and the U.S. Census Bureau, illegal aliens represent 15 to 22 percent of the estimated 46 million U.S. “residents” (not “citizens”) without health insurance. The Department of Homeland Security estimates about 1.68 million illegal aliens live in Texas and many uninsured in the Dallas area use the Parkland Health and Hospital System, which had $512 million in uncompensated costs for uninsured patients in 2007.

Do not be taken in by slick government salesmen (politicians). The recently publicized multi-billion dollar promise by drug companies to “narrow a Medicare drug coverage gap for older adults” is valid only if universal health care is passed. And don’t be impressed that A. Barry Rand, president of the AARP, was at that news conference. He probably doesn’t understand it either, but the AARP is very important to the president’s universal health care. Supposedly this drug deal will “defray the cost of drugs for the elderly” and “will make a difference in the lives of many older Americans.'' You bet it will make a difference in our lives, but we will be giving up much more than we get—and so will every American who may be “young” now but will eventually get to be an “older American,” too.

It’s time to bring out the American flags again and come together as we did after 9/11 —not just for Independence Day, but for every day of the year. Standing up for your rights is standing up for your country. God Bless America.

Kathleen Gudaitis

Johnston