(It will be a bit slow on the blog for the next couple of weeks-- too many jobs, too little time.)
The health care coverage issue has taken on characteristics of insanity. I thought people in the US were supposed to be PRACTICAL, CAN-DO types. At this point, the mess is incredible: wingnuts on the right and their very happy supporters in the insurance, big pharma and private hospital business are managing to blur the vision of ordinary folks to the extent that they can no longer separate the wheat from the chaff.
Instead of being helpful educators and clear thinkers and speakers, the Democrats, from the Blue to the Leftish have caved, pretty much. Of course a bunch of them get big bucks from big medical lobbies....whoda guessed?
Meanwhile, the best approaches are drowning. I favor single-payer. Let's say that's too abrupt...okay, let's find some combination which at least favors the people of the country for now and head for single payer.
Just so you can understand how propaganda is smothering common sense, here is an excellent artice in the New England Journal of Medicine that explains how manipulated language is deceiving us all: Download 440. The author points out that assumptions about "American values" really have nothing to do with the practical issues of efficient health care coverage for Americans. He demonstrates how under single payer systems we'd actually have MORE choice, not less, than we do now, and why. He points out that we are a diverse country and that the people who dealt in the propaganda of the right in fact lost the elections in 2009.
I wish DEMOCRATS would remember that.
Paul Krugman has pointed out that the six senators (Blue Dog Democrats) most responsible for decimating health care legislation come from states which altogether have a population less than the state of New Jersey. He also describes the errors in understanding the financing of health care...it won't cost more to us taxpayers than the mess we have now. Here is a link to Krugman's blog. Here's a link to his column in today's NY Times.
If you think the New England Journal of Medicine and Paul Krugman and the NY Times are somehow agents of dangerous, lurking commies or something, you need to learn how to evaluate evidence and think critically about issues which exist in the real world and which should be discussed from the point of view of what's practical. The only ideological components should be: 1. Will it efficiently cover me and my family? 2. Will it cover everyone, at least for the basics of decent treatment for serious illnesses?