In response to Laura Lunsford’s letter, I would like to correct her and others on the facts regarding healthcare reform.

Yes, our government is loaded with debt that was created by the previous eight years of George W. Bush. He spent the budget surplus left by President Bill Clinton and then doubled our nation’s debt and tripled the deficit.

Where were all the fiscal hawks of the Republican Party when this was occurring? Healthcare reform is one of the key ingredients to putting our country’s economy and fiscal house back in order.

The public option in healthcare is an option that one can choose and is not mandatory, so there is no government takeover of healthcare. If the public does not like it they will reject it and have the right to keep their current health plan. So how is that a government takeover?

If the government cannot do healthcare because government cannot do anything more efficiently and cheaper, then what are you and the big health insurance companies afraid of? Ask any veteran who gets their healthcare from the government run VA if they are happy or ask a retiree on Medicare if they are satisfied. You may be surprised that most are very satisfied with the care they receive.

The public option will provide needed competition to make the healthcare insurance companies act more responsibly.

I have not heard what the Republicans suggest we do with healthcare other than keep it as it is. These healthcare insurance companies are all about profit and that can cause them to get between you and your doctor on what kind of coverage you get.

Reform will help you obtain more stability and security concerning healthcare. Health insurance companies will be stopped from denying coverage because of existing conditions of your healthcare history. There will be a yearly cap on how much they can charge for out of pocket expenses. No one should have to go bankrupt because of healthcare expenses.

Healthcare insurance premiums have risen much faster than the increase of wages, and more of your hard-earned dollars are eaten up by this cost.

Major healthcare insurance companies have reported record profits with CEOs earning an outrageous salary. Our economy’s recovery is partly dependent on healthcare reform because if nothing is done, the ever increasing costs will drag the economy down.

Republicans say we cannot afford reform, but the reality is we cannot afford not to. Having people with no insurance to go to the emergency room when they have a serious condition is not cost effective when preventive care or early treatment would cost less.

So how do we pay for healthcare reform for 47 million people who are uninsured because of job loss or other misfortune? Well, I did not hear much push-back from Congress when Bush misled us in an unneeded war in Iraq that cost over $2 trillion and was never funded and kept off budget until the Obama administration took over. That would have paid for healthcare reform with some change left over.

Repealing the Bush tax cuts on on the top 2 percent would go a long way to pay for healthcare reform. Please remember that President Obama stated that he would not sign a bill that was not paid for, contrary to what Bush did with No Child Left Behind and the Medicare prescription program.

Michael Conner

Peachtree City, Ga.