At long last, the health care reform debate seems to be winding down. Obama, Pelosi, and the Democrats are declaring victory after months of squabbling and the first steps have been taken to implement what Vice President Biden called, “a big [bleep]ing deal.”

The anger felt over health care reform surprised me. I continue to believe that few in the United States legitimately thinks that some people deserve health care and others don’t. And while the issue seems to stem from the so-called “government takeover” of health care, few are complaining about a government-funded public transit system, police force, or postal service.

So why is everyone so angry over health care?

The public debate over health care has been a calculated exercise in misinformation and misdirected anger. As a public health professional, I am the first to admit that the majority of health care is excruciatingly boring. Most of the 2000-page bill just signed by President Obama focuses on physician payments, definitions of health facilities, and funding for epidemiological studies. The “death panels” that Sarah Palin invented last year never existed. Neither did the public funds for abortion. And the LGBTQ provisions? Well, all but one has been thrown out with this new compromise.

And yet, despite the fact that the non-FOX News media has repeatedly refuted these rumors, a segment of the population has remained up in arms over the new deal. So again, what are they so angry about?

The focus on abortion is illustrative that this fight really is not about health care at all. If the tea partiers and conservatives were really concerned with health care, then they would do what so many of the health alliances and trade associations have been doing: read the bill(s). Despite Rep. Stupak’s insistence, abortion was very much a non-issue by the time the Senate began debating health care. But it remained a rallying cry for Republican members of Congress (who apparently also didn’t read the bills), and ultimately resulted in a pointless and sexist executive order from the President reaffirming already existing legislation.

The death threats and acts of vandalism reported by Democratic representatives following the vote earlier this week show that even in spite of the news media’s ongoing dissection of the bill, people still aren’t listening and health care isn’t the problem. The anti-health care terrorists (to borrow a bit of conservative rhetoric) wouldn’t be nearly as upset if Obama decreed that all public schools would be required to teach creationism and not evolution. And I will go out on a limb and say that many would be comfortable if the federal government made homosexuality illegal and reinstated segregation.

While the tea partiers and opponents of health care can hide behind the guise of libertarianism and small government as much as they want, when it comes right down to it it’s only certain types of big government (and certain segments of the population) they oppose.