Some thoughts on the health care debate

Since this whole clusterfuck of a debate on what we should do with the health care infrastructure in this country began to explode, I haven't at any point likened myself as an expert on the issue, nor have I acted like I knew exactly what we needed to do in spite of not knowing exactly what was going on or what was at stake (unlike so many freakin others in this country).

Really I'm just riding with Obama on this one, mainly because I voted for that man with a mind that he could change the way this goddam country does things and change it more than any president before him. Obama says that the type of health care legislation he's pushing for is the direction that we need to go in, so I'm there. Plus I'm secure in what I got (health care of my choosing from Gannett), while at the same time unsatisfied with what we have as a nation (no reason why anybody shouldn't have health coverage, let alone some 40 million, which is what I last heard).

Anyhow...I know what side I'm on and it isn't on the side of them brain-dead holla'n idiots who are shouting down anything that looks like real reform. I've really been disheartened by the talk of getting rid of the govt. run plan to compete with private providers. Obama trying to save face saying that the public option is only a "little sliver" of the overall plan, but it seems to me to be the whole point of this thing. Yeah, we're trying to keep this plan from drowning in taxpayer funds but how else will more people who need health care get it if we don't have a true alternative to the already very-expensive private insurance industry. As NYT op-ed columist Bob Herbert wrote for Tuesday's edition:

The hope of a government-run insurance option is all but gone. So there will be no effective alternative for consumers in the market for health coverage, which means no competitive pressure for private insurers to rein in premiums and other charges. (Forget about the nonprofit cooperatives. That’s like sending peewee footballers up against the Super Bowl champs.)

Insurance companies are delighted with the way “reform” is unfolding. Think of it: The government is planning to require most uninsured Americans to buy health coverage. Millions of young and healthy individuals will be herded into the industry’s welcoming arms. This is the population the insurers drool over.

It scares me just how willfully ignorant people scared of any kind of change have hijacked this whole discussion. I haven't heard any approach to this issue as clear-headed as the one Paul Krugman offered on Monday, breaking down this nation's care among that of the rest of the developed world, which we act like we want to lead without doing the necessary work it takes (I know, I know, I'm positioning myself as a Times-waving liberal, which I'm really not, but its where I go for my national news- at least until they start making folks pay online again. Give me an argument from the other side as reasonable and I'll post it here as well).

Reading that column literally calmed me down, until I got to the last paragraph:

So we can do this. At this point, all that stands in the way of universal health care in America are the greed of the medical-industrial complex, the lies of the right-wing propaganda machine, and the gullibility of voters who believe those lies.

Yeah, all that stands in the way is RW propaganda and gullible voters. The only thing that RW propaganda and gullible voters needs to stand in the way of is all the sensible citizens of this nation and the muhfuckin grand canyon. Then all we'll need is a little push.

Good luck, Obama.