Mass Media’s Undermining of Societal Values During Health...

Mass Media’s Undermining of Societal Values During Health Care Reform There is little doubt that three years ago the American people wanted health care reform. News media saw the controversy over health care reform as a strong issue to discuss in their productions, and most fulfilled their responsibility as an information medium: to provide equal opportunity for both sides of this debate to reveal the benefits of their plans and the drawbacks of their opponents’. However, when interest groups became involved in this dispute, advertising their own beliefs against the Clinton Health Care Reform Plan, they manipulated the public by using scare tactics. News media incorporated these ads in their coverage of the benefits and†¦show more content†¦Page 2 Before the Clinton Health Care Reform initiative was ever mentioned, news media knew society valued a better and reformed health care system. Initially much of mass news media reflected that the American public wanted health care reform. On March 22, 1994, the Illinois Business Review published an article called â€Å"National Health Care Reform: Comparing Four Alternative Plans†. The introduction of this article had three amazing statistics from a Gallop poll in 1991 which bluntly stated that a majority of Americans wanted health care reform. Ninety- one percent of the persons polled said they believed that there was a health care crisis, and eighty- five percent said they felt that there was a need for reform (Reich 3). Approximately eighty percent were either very or somewhat satisfied with their health insurance, but complained about poor coverage and cost (Reich 3). For those who could not afford health care, eighty percent said they believed that the government should pick up the tab (Reich 3). These three statistics displayed that a majority of Americans polled valued health care reform. The prime objective of universal health care is to insure every citizen, especially the twenty six million Americans who have no health care insurance and who valued this initiative the most. Because health care reform was popular as reflected in poll data, it seemed inevitable. When the Clinton’s mentioned their plan, it won much public support. This