Maybe one of the strongest arguments for government involvement in a managed health care system is that we are already paying for socialized medicine in this country.

It’s just that we are paying far too much for too little coverage.

Anyone who thinks the United States is not already operating a sort of hodge-podge form of socialized medicine just isn’t paying attention to the facts. Both Medicaid, which provides health care for the poor, and Medicare, which provides coverage for the elderly, are government-run health insurance programs that are paid for through taxes and other federal income.

In the private sector, have you ever seen the signs in hospitals and doctors’ offices that say they cannot refuse to treat anyone, regardless of their ability to pay? The costs for any medical treatments provided to people who can’t pay for them ultimately get passed on to those Americans who are paying for treatment.

Despite the financial simplicity of those realities, most Americans seem unaware — or unwilling to admit — that we practice a form of socialized medicine in this country now.

The problem is, because it is a patchwork system, it does not work very well. That is what Congress and the president are working to fix.

But it’s hard to get to the root of the argument because of all of the garbage being thrown around by both sides of the debate — from claims the government will be deciding which Americans would live or die (an outright fabrication) to allegations it would blindly cover illegal aliens (another distortion of the truth).

While political activists and special interests continue to whip up American citizens into a froth over health care reform, behavior that is neither sensible or productive, there are groups of congressional leaders from both parties quietly trying to come up with a bipartisan measure that adequately addresses health care reform.

That is where the real hope lies. No solution has any chance of working unless it has some support from both parties.

It’s time we put the political grandstanding and bickering aside and work to make sure everyone has access to affordable health care.

We are already paying for universal health care, so we might as well make it “fair”