“So much of what’s out there is just propaganda!”
That’s what a local doctor told Lt. Governor Elizabeth
Roberts at the April 13 forum on affordable health care, organized by the Charlestown
Democratic Town Committee and held at the Cross Mills Public Library. He commended Liz
Roberts for her leadership of Rhode Island’s efforts to put the new Affordable
Health Care Act into practice and urged her to educate the public about what it
will do – and won’t do.
Lt. Governor Roberts mostly took questions and provided
straight-forward, substantive answers during the nearly two hour session. She
noted that though the new law is federal, how it’s put into play is largely decided
in each state. She also debunked, right from the start, the myth that so-called
Obamacare is “socialized medicine,” pointing out that it’s really the opposite.
It works to coordinate the existing patchwork system of health care financing
that rests largely on private insurance, plus federal Medicare and the
state-federal Medicaid program so that it works more efficiently and covers
more people.