After reading the Op-ed by Oscar Perez, it was stunning to me that such a poorly written, error ridden, slanderous tirade could have been printed in such a respected paper as The Collegian. So I had two options: I could laugh it off and tell myself that everyone else who reads this nonsense will have the same repulsion as me and simply disregard it; or I could respond with an Op-ed of my own explaining the facts of the president’s historic Health Insurance Reform bill and what it does and doesn’t do.

A few hours after reading the piece I came across a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll which found that 55 percent of Americans are still confused about what exactly is in the bill. Mr. Perez obviously falls into this category and instead of finding out the facts, as he put it, “his ignorance blindsided him.” So I feel compelled to write this response and set the record straight:

Ӣ Starting this year it will allow students to stay on their parents insurance until 26 years of age. Eventually this will help cover one in three young adults who are uninsured.

Ӣ Also starting this year, if you become sick, you cannot be dropped from your plan.

”¢ Creates health Insurance Exchanges for those don’t have employment based coverage. This allows for simple price comparisons so you can choose the plan that best fits you.

Ӣ Insurance companies, beginning in 2011, will have to submit justification for all premium increases. Companies that make excessive increases may not be allowed to compete for your business in the insurance exchanges.

”¢ Provides rebates for Medicare recipients who fall into the “doughnut hole,” allowing millions of seniors who can’t afford their prescription drugs to get needed help.

Ӣ Will require all plans to cover preventative care, with no co-payments or deductibles.

”¢ Bans HMO’s from denying anyone coverage based on income or pre-existing conditions

Ӣ Will not allow federal funding of abortions.

This last point is where Mr. Perez takes his confused understanding and embarrassingly put it on display. “Obama’s bill will reserve more than $11 billion to financially support community health care clinics not excluding Planned Parenthood clinics, which by the way support abortions and racism.”

Now, as for the racism charge against the president, his supporters and Planned Parenthood (which he throws around quite a bit throughout his screed), it’s just too ridiculous to waste my time trying to refute. But raising the issue of federal funding for the practice of abortion is actually somewhat of a legitimate concern so let’s just take that apart right now:

Ӣ The bill attempts to maintain a strict separation between private premiums and taxpayer funds that would pay for abortion coverage. No health plan would be required to provide coverage for the procedure. In plans that do cover abortion, beneficiaries would have to pay for it separately, and those funds would have to be kept in a separate account from taxpayer money.

”¢ In addition to the restrictive language in the bill, an executive order, signed by the president after its passage, explicitly states that “The Act establishes a new Community Health Center (CHC) Fund within HHS, which provides additional Federal funds for the community health center program. Existing law prohibits these centers from using federal funds to provide abortion services (except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the woman would be endangered), as a result of both the Hyde Amendment and longstanding regulations containing the Hyde language. Under the Act, the Hyde language shall apply to the authorization and appropriations of funds for Community Health Centers under section 10503 and all other relevant provisions.”

Mr. Perez ends his Op-ed with, “What’s done is done, now let’s move on. We are all human and we all make mistakes, except Obama’s will affect millions.” Well Obama’s “mistake” of passing health care legislation will affect millions””by expanding coverage, reducing costs and cutting the deficit by $127 billion, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Mr. Perez’s mistake has exposed him as nothing more than a uniformed right-wing zealot. Now that the facts have been laid out, indeed, let’s move on.

Justin Steele is the president of the College Democrats at Fresno State.