The Cost of Doing Nothing is Too Great

At a town hall meeting on health care reform in South Sioux City this week, Senator Ben Nelson addressed a crowd of 100 or so constituents from northeast Nebraska.

The crowd was largely elderly, folks were friendly, but I could tell immediately that people wanted to get down to business. With health care reform occupying space in our newspapers, time on TV and radio, and conversations with our friends, families and co-workers, most of us have an idea of what we want to see from health care reform. And folks at Ben Nelson's South Sioux City town hall meeting were not afraid to ask for what they want.

People asked about developing electronic health records to avoid duplicating expensive medical tests, someone else wondered how we can bring enough doctors to rural areas to care for the increasingly elderly population. A retired nurse worried that we would pitch the existing health system instead of building on what is already working.

Most everyone, it seemed, had suggestions about where they want health reform to lead us.

Because so many voiced specific recommendations about what health care reform should do, I was surprised when about one-third of the room raised their hand when Sen. Nelson asked if anyone thought we should do nothing about health care.

This "do nothing" attitude is something I simply cannot agree with. The cost of doing nothing is too great for all us in rural America.

I'm convinced we need health care reform. Right now.