Who are YOU fighting for?

I fully realize that health care coverage is a benefit and privelege we afford all of our elected officials. It's partial compensation, provided by the public and in the interest of the public, for the service they dedicate to our nation. And so, our public officials have every right to utilize this benefit we have provided them.

However with that said, I pose this question? If so many of our government officials are confident in our current health care system and believe that reform is an over-reach of government power, why not forfeit their own public provided health care benefit and purchase their own private coverage like every other American.

Surely, it would save the public money. A great deal of money in fact. Politicians would have to pay for health care coverage out of their own pockets instead of the public funding it. Granted, that's only a handful of people in the larger sense. So how much of a monetary difference could it really make?

I won't be naive and contend that such a move would tip the scales and fix our deficit. But it may open the eyes of certain politicians who claim to be fighting for what the public wants, all while never having experienced the public's relationship with the current form of health care.

Maybe, if certain politicians we're denied medical coverage based on pre-existing conditions they'd understand the how difficult it is to have 5 heart attacks and actually recieve medical treatment under an insurance plan.

Maybe they'd understand the pain, frustration, and horror of hours of being bounced around from one insurance department to another as your ailing family member slowly slips away.

Maybe they'd have a sense of seeing you're life savings robbed from you to pay for medical bills despite the fact that you've paid insurance premiums year in and year out.

If you already have enough money to pay for health care or you have blanket health care like our politicians then your never going to know the difficulties so many people face.

You can oppose health care reform, that's fine. But you should have to deal with health care the same way the average American does. Pay for it out of your own pocket, deal with pre-existing conditions and coverage drops. Then maybe you'll know what the American public wants and needs and what you should really be fighting for.

Watch the Health Care Summit at www.wh.gov today.

INFORM yourself, then form your opinions.