" What we have NOW is unaffordable, unsustainable and immoral. Nothing could possibly cost more in wasted lives and dollars than to continue our broken status quo.

I agree forcing everyone to feed the "Beast That IS the Problem" (health unsurers) will only make the problem worse. Health unsurance is a defective product that price gouges healthy Americans and denies desperately needed medical care to sick ones, while making unbelievable profits at our expense.

Less than half the money this one industry diverts away from health care could be used to cover all of our uninsured and underinsured reliably and comprehensively, and produce hundreds of billions of health care dollars per year left over in savings.

We need to unite into the largest, strongest group possible. Improving Medicare for ALL would save Medicare, millions of unnecessarily devastated lives, and our economy. "

" Bernie: Your paragraph 3 is so ridiculous it defies logic. Government run health care will further bankrupt this country while everyone gets LESS health care. "

" sapient wrote on Nov 19, 2009 10:19 AM:
" Bernie: Your paragraph 3 is so ridiculous it defies logic. Government run health care will further bankrupt this country while everyone gets LESS health care. """""


wrong again sappy..... "

" Government-run Medicare takes care of 15% of our oldest and sickest with a 2.9% tax on wages only, and operates on a proven 45-year history of 2-3% overhead.

Profit-before people private health unsurance requires 31% administrative overhead. Some people claim that another 2.9% wage tax could cover the remaining 85% of our youngest and healthiest, but I think it would take slightly more...certainly not the 17% GDP and rising without restraint costs we're spending now. Every other civilized nation on Earth but ours understands that we need to unite for the best protection at the best price, eliminate unnecessarily greedy and immoral middlemen, and utilize efficiencies of scale.

Keeping doing what we're doing defies logic. Repeatedly doing what doesn't work (what we're doing now) is a definition of insanity.

With one out of every six Americans rationed to zero, with wait times until "after it's too late" NOW, we already win all the Booby Prizes for both rationing and wait times (especially in our E.R.'s. where wait times are most critical). "

" As the old saying goes, if you think insurance (or whatever) costs too much now, wait until it's free! "

" I know it's been said before but if this health care plan is so wonderful as the smug Dems stand at the podium and tell us it is then when are they signing up for it?

Also, it has been pointed out by others that if this health care plan is so wonderful why has Pelosi said she is willing to lose Congressional seats to get it passed?

Or maybe I can answer that one. Those on the left who so badly feel the need to control every aspect of our lives are certain that they also know what's best for us because they are so much smarter than you and I. Or at least that's what they keep telling themselves. "

" Health unsurance does cost too much now. The national average for family coverage through an employer (which costs less than if you have to buy health insurance on your own) is over $13,000 per year (generally higher in rural areas, which we are). That's just for the coverage, not including co-pays, deductibles and exclusions. The median household income (gross not net) in Coles County is around $23,000 per year.

I am a business owner. NO business that expects to remain viable would allow an unnecessary middleman to consume 31% off the top before any goods or services could begin to be delivered, and "We the People's" business must stop allowing it too (if we expect to remain viable, that is).

United for strength and transparency, the people of the United States could all benefit from reliable and comprehensive health coverage from cradle to grave at a fraction of the cost we're spending now to keep a highly inflationary, profits-before-people corporate middleman in charge of denying us health care. "

" Imagine if before a teacher would teach our children, we had to buy education insurance from a third party middleman that exists solely for the purpose of making money, and diverts 31% of what we spend on education insurance away from education. Learning disabled children would be rated up (and often out) because they need more services. Art, Music and P.E. would be additional riders that only relatively wealthy families could afford.

If education was run like health coverage, one out of every six children would go totally without any, another three out of six would be under-educated, and the cost of educating our children would be bankrupting our country.

How much do you think corporations would charge us to drive on our highways if they owned them and were out to make as much money as possible?

How many among us could afford to call the fire department or police, if the "free" market controlled them?

"Public service" is not evil or bad for our society. It's based on a currently out-of-fashion concept called "The Good of the Whole". "

" Adopting in our country what is a failure in other countries (google "Heather Sandstrom video")
is stupidity. "

" Again, it's not about health care, it's about government control. "

" Right now the health unsurance industry is in control, and that's the worst choice of all.

Health coverage is about protecting people's lives when they are sick and unable to protect themselves. And it's about saving money on top of lives, easily preventable disabilities, bankruptcies, terror of falling ill due to financial devastation, etc.

I am against what Obama and the Democrats are proposing because it leaves the problem (profit-before-people health unsurance industry) in control of the solution. What we need is Medicare for ALL,and we needed it generations ago. Our seniors would have been toast without it, and the rest of us are toast without it too. "

" I would like to know the true story behind Heather Sandstrom. I'd bet a million dollars she's being paid a million dollars to tell a tall tale or two.

I've talked to many Canadians, and have yet to find one who does not love their system and fear our divided-and-conquered non-system. One Canadian small business owner told me his wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He said she got right in to see the doctor as soon as her symptoms appeared, was on the operating table three days later having her tumor removed, and is alive and healthy today. He pointed out that as a small business owner, had that happened to him and his wife here in the U.S., his wife would probably be dead now, plus he and his business bankrupted. When I asked him about the long Canadian wait times and rationing we hear so much about, he told me those were lies. He said no one waits if it's important, but sometimes there are wait times for elective things.

Here we wait for elective things too (because almost no one wants to be in a hospital or be operated on if they can put it off a while longer). Once my father decided to finally have his knees operated on, he had to wait six months (in pain) for an appointment. I know another person here who had to wait over one month to get in to see a cardiologist even though his atrial fibrilation would not stop. He went to the emergency room four times before he was able to finally get an appointment.

For every Canadian health care horror story you can find (nothing involving human beings will ever be perfect) we've got a million worse American tales to tell. "

" I said "Health coverage is about protecting people's lives when they are sick and unable to protect themselves".

What I should have said is, "Health coverage SHOULD BE about protecting people's lives" (like Medicare is).

Private health insurers are all about making as much money as possible while dumping as many sick people as possible from their rolls.

The reason why we hear 85% of Americans are happy with their health coverage is because 85% are healthy and have never had to test their coverage. Plus people do not understand the Big Picture of greedy heartless corruption they are supporting with their premium dollars. Health unsurers use our own money to lobby, propagandize, buy public sentiment and legislation that is against our own best interests. The 15% who are not happy with their coverage arethe 15% who got sick.

Another problem with private health unsurance is that every dime we've paid goes down the tubes when we don't use it. It's like we're being forced to rent our health coverage when instead we need to build equity in it. If all the money all the Baby Boomer had thrown down the drain to private health insurers was available today, we would have saved enough to take care of ourselves and generations to come. "

" One fact no one disputes is that we pay twice as much per person for our health care as Canada does , yet do not live as long and have far more health problems. Plus we completely exclude one out of every six Americans and underinsure another three out of six, while Canada offers the same comprehensive coverage from cradle to grave for everyone.

Medical bankruptcies and pre-existing conditions are uniquely American. "