Effects of Health Care Reform Are Now

There are a lot of distortions and outright lies floating around about health care reform. but President Obama's folk are working hard to get the word out that there are big changes happening right now. Read  the Patient's Bill of Rights–you can find a copy here–download it, and share it with your neighbors. 

The Tea Party continues to circulate a petition to have Michigan "opt out" of health care reform, and they are spreading distortions and lies about the reform. Please DO NOT sign any petition like this, but instead have your own copy of the Patient's Bill of Rights to set the record straight. 

I recently heard that people who are circulating the petition are telling folk that Muslims and Amish can opt out and not be penalized. False

The "Muslim" connection is based on the lie that Obama is really a Muslim who is somehow in league with Al Qaeda because he is really not an American but a Kenyan. Some of our fellow citizens have been spending far too much time basking in the electromagnetic waves coming from the Fox network, and their ability to tell fact from fantasy has been all but eliminated. 

Some religions might decide not to participate in the health care reform, and under Article 1 of the Constitution, they can decline to be included. However, the government cannot favor any religious group over another, so the claim that Muslims and Amish are automatically excluded is false. 

Curiously, the people who are spreading this particular piece of misinformation would be the first to say that this is a Christian nation, and therefore there should be no separation between church and state. So the government should be able to include or exclude any denomination it wishes. This is twisted logic at its finest. 

One other thing they seem to have forgotten. Isn't there something in their holy book that says "Thou shalt not bear false witness?" I think that has something to do with lying, doesn't it?