But at this point it’s all we’ve got.

My point with that strange statement is that this administration and Congress did the equivalent of walking into a used car dealership and telling the salesman what they were willing to spend. What kind of negotiator proposes what he thinks he can get as his initial offer? We’re being told that this is the best we can get, but nobody even bothered trying to get anything better and then bargained down…unless we count whatever deal Obama cooked up in his secret meetings.

I was told by someone who had just won his 9th reelection bid to the House that the priorities would be 1. stabilizing the economy and 2. health care reform. This is what we’re getting out of the top, chosen priority of the Democratic Party? The majority of people want reform, and the Dems are planning on giving them warmed over gruel. Please, sir, may i have some more?

Saying this is better than what we have now is like saying that Obama is better than Bush. If the Democratic Party set the bar for itself any lower they’d trip over it. The Dems have a fantastic orator, capable of convincing people who came into office with a metric shit-ton of support and what did Obama do to push this debate? Where was his taking on insurance industry interests for the benefit of his constituents?

He/they crafted a bill that insurance companies would tolerate and then proceeded to cram it down everyone else’s throat. Why was the arm twisting and knee capping all directed at people who said we can do better?

Sure crumbs are better than starving…but not by much.

Do I think it’s a perfect bill or the best option. No, I don’t. But I also recognize that politics is the art of the possible, and if this bill passes, it occurs to me that Obama has pushed the limits of the possible farther than I ever thought he could. And many, many Americans will benefit from that.

Now, if all this does is cause health care providers to jack up prices, we’ve got a bigger problem, but if they do that, we now have a Congress that has precedent for legislating in the health care arena.

I think this is a big and positive step, Lex. I really do.

The kicker will be after we have mandated coverage and no denials/lifetime caps, will there be rate regulation?

My strong objection to this is that A, the president was in secret negotiations with the very industries he’s talking about “reforming” before the process started; B, there seems to be nothing in the bill to keep rates down, just force everyone to buy the insurance; C, they managed to choose the most convoluted, and quite possibly worst, way to fix this problem out of all the options that could have worked; D, the Democratic Party has made sure to quash any ideas that differed from what leadership had already decided to do (remember the promise about public debate?); and…oh hell, i’ll stop there.

In the end, it comes down to simply not trusting Obama or the Congressional Dems to actually be looking out for the interests of the majority of Americans and the knowledge that whatever is good about the bill probably will not be improved in the future…again, back to the trust issue.

This is the most starry-eyed piece of idealism I’ve ever heard from you.

It appears that all Americans would be required to have insurance, there would be subsidies for families making $88k or less, insurance companies would be required to accept purchasers regardless of medical history and could not cancel insurance because of medical history, very rich plans would be taxed for the value in which they exceed a certain value (a separate website said that would be around 24k per year, which is very, very rich, indeed), high income individuals will see Medicare taxes increase, and there might be new taxes on unearned income.

Do I think this will solve the problem of out-of-control costs? I think it’s unlikely. The taxes on very rich plans may force those plans into a death spiral that may eliminate them from the marketplace, and that might save some money. Adding the sick to insurance roles will cost more money — sort of. Or maybe not. Those having insurance are already paying at least part of the cost for the inadequate treatment the uninsured can scavenge, and it’s possible that better medical care early for these people might even reduce costs. No one knows, that I can tell.

I know that the real issue is overutilization and the fact that the bulk of most people’s medical costs occur in the last six weeks of life, which is the same as saying that we, as a group, are paying huge bucks to keep people alive for a few extra weeks, often when they are suffering mightily and/or not really “there” any more. We won’t solve the health care cost crisis until we come to terms with these things. Still, I do think that the bill is s step forward.

I’ve not read anything about it that looks even vaguely like “reform” or that it might be good for the majority of people in the United States. But apparently it absolutely must pass for the sake of the President’s legislative agenda…whatever that might be. And as they’ve whipped Kucinich until he cried, “Uncle” to get his vote it’s gotta be bad from front to back.

If it was good they could pass it with a real vote and wouldn’t have to convince us how good it is…or try and hide the fact that Obama was cutting deals with segments of the industry he’s proposing to “reform” before the process even got started.

I guess there’s probably a good reason why he decided against the public debate on health care that he promised during the campaign.

And i’m looking at this whole thing through the eyes of one of those uninsured Americans that this is supposed to help, so i’ve got plenty of skin in the game.