Western Courier

As a veteran who has used the VA healthcare system, I can tell you that the VA Illiana Healthcare System in Danville, IL treated me while I was a receiving treatment there. The staff is friendly, professional and show a great amount of respect for their patients. I can't speak for all VA facilities, but making generalizations about all VA centers/ service providers does an injustice to the professionals who do a great job. Your comment of "Ask any veteran who has been there and they will tell you it is less than welcoming or what is deserved." is way off base, at least for this veteran.

Maybe the writer meant, "ask any veteran except Art." ;-)

Borrowing words from the article, "If you do your own research," you would know that Obama is not proposing a universal, government-provided healthcare system. He's allowing the private sector insurers to still exist and operate, with, dare I say it, competition from a government-run system that would not only provide stop-gap insurance for those that don't have private insurance available to them, but also provide an alternative to the cost-cutting private companies.

And if you think that people with private insurance are greeted with sheet cakes and smiles at a hospital, you or a loved one has never had an extended stay in a (private-run) hospital. These places aren't exactly posh resorts. In fact, my grandfather, who was fairly wealthy, broke his hip a few years ago. Before he passed, he spent time in two convalescent homes, a state-run home in Wisconsin and a private-run home in Illinois. The care and attention he got from the state-run home in Wisconsin was incomparable to that in the private home. First of all, there was NOTHING that the people at the WI home wouldn't do for him; on the other hand, he had to beg and plead at the private home just to get someone to clean his bedpan. His (private) insurance policy paid for his care at both locations.

As for this statement: "When did we allow the government to tell us what we can and cannot do for our bodies?"

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING! We've been allowing this for over the 30 years I've been alive. The government tells kids under 18 that they can't smoke. The government tells kids under 21 that they can't drink alcohol. The government tells EVERYONE that they can't put certain substances in their bodies. The government dictates that you have to buckle your seat belt when you get in a car. The government tells you that you cannot accept money in exchange for sex.

We've allowed, and in many instances requested, that the government dictate what we can and cannot do for and with our bodies. I don't see government-run healthcare, in and of itself, to be an extension of that. True that, much like private insurers currently do, they could use it as a avenue to place more restrictions on people (my primary apprehension re: govn't run healthcare), but the existance of such a program alone does not constitute any dictation over what you can and cannot with your body, IMO.