The read

From my mid-week column in the Athens Banner-Herald ...

Then there's folks like 69-year-old Larry Deland of Snohomish, Wash., who said he would be "screwed" if the government took over his health care - thus suggesting he was willfully ignoring the fact that, via Medicare, the government already provides him and anyone over the age of 65 with health insurance.

That's one of the most puzzling elements in this absurd spectacle. A much-needed overhaul of our health care system, aimed at controlling rising costs for middle-class families and expanding coverage for the uninsured, is getting heavy criticism from the only segment of the American population that, thanks to Medicare, enjoys controlled costs and universal coverage through government participation.

More succinctly, a group of folks with coverage much of the rest of the nation is clamoring for seem determined to derail the reform effort, based on falsehoods fed to them by right-wing talking heads.