Well said, MaryAnn.

There was a time when I was against universal healthcare, not too long ago. I believed all the lies about the "dangers" of socializing healthcare: lack of quality care, waiting lists, taxes so high it would drive struggling lower-middle class (like my family: fortunate enough to be working and making enough to pay our bills but still living pretty much paycheck to paycheck) into poverty. But a number of things have happened to shift me to the other side.

I work for a small business right under the President. The insurance premiums are crippling to the company, even for the cheapest (and therefore crappiest) policy. Indeed, it drives the company President to pick the cheapest plan, regardless of what was covered or how high the deductibles are. During renewal time, I got a lot of complaints from the covered employees that now their medications weren't covered and they would have to switch beloved doctors. Also, the weekly premiums for the employees end up being so high that only the most fortunate employees with the higher pay or who were already well off could afford it. It made me angry that the poorer people who work in our production plant have to go with out because they can't afford it, but are too "rich" for welfare. There's one woman with untreated diabetes there. Another had a pretty bad car wreck where she got bruised and she DIDN'T EVEN GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM! She was scared about the cost and she's already struggling. She came to WORK with bruised up collar bone and bruises all over her!! Plus no car insurance, so she drove a damaged car with a smooshed up hood for months!!

Unacceptable!!!

MAJ, I think it might have been you who said the one line that finally shifted me over for good. (Please correct me if I misquoted you). It was something like:
Why can Americans have no problem paying taxes for things like police, firefighters or schools, but not the most important thing of all: healthcare for the bodies we live in? I mean, this makes so much sense. Whenever I hear a conservative family member say something like "dur I don't wanna pay for THOSE people's healthcare it's not MY fault they don't take care of themselves blah blah drug use abortion blah" (like the nice classist assumptions there? lol) I just wanna scream. Not everyone has kids, but we all contribute to public schools, right? Because well-educated children benefit ALL OF US, and make our society better to live in. Also true with our bodies: healthy bodies make for happier lives. We only get one body and one life. And it's not important too??

God this turned into a rant. :X

The wackiest thing to me is the people who are absolutely convinced that the American way of life (whatever that means) is the absolute best in every possible way have, more often than not, never spent more than a month of their entire life in another country (not to say that a short vacation is always an educational, eye-opening experience).

I currently work for the federal government in a small city in the northern midwest, and it's a little scary how homogenous and closed-minded many people seem to be about anything unfamiliar. Most of the people at my office won't even eat at a Chinese restaurant or a Taco Bell, and my boss talks about atheists as if they're subhuman (I wisely stay out of those conversations). And traveling to Europe, Australia, or Japan? Forget about it. They don't even want to visit New York or DC.

The weirdest thing is that we're pretty close to the Canadian border, but most people here (all relatively wealthy men) haven't even been to Canada! The only thing that will inspire them to travel is the chance to shoot some animal that doesn't live near here or play golf. And these are the people who consider themselves qualified to form an intelligent opinion on the relative quality of the health care system. There are plenty of nincompoops in big cities on the coasts too, but at least they've lived (or know someone who has lived) in other countries for an extended period of time.

I wish someone impartial would round up a bunch of people who have lived in many different countries (patients, doctors, nurses, rich people, poor people), and interview them about their experiences with various healthcare systems. That would be more helpful to me than a million speeches and "debates."

Amanohyo, your wish has been very nearly granted. Check out the latest book by T.R. Reid, "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care."

Reid perhaps didn't survey quite as many people as you might have wished, but he actually did travel the world, interviewing doctors, patients, and policy makers in a wide variety of different health care systems that are all doing what the United States has thus far failed to do.

He is also doing some great interviews about the book's subject. Here's one that's very good if you can get past the first 10 seconds, which for some reason is nothing but a blank screen and silence.

Trust me, it's more than worth the wait.

Thanks for the recommendation Victor! I saw Reid's Frontline documentary last year, but I hadn't heard about the book. I'll hunt down a copy this weekend.

It's true that the left seems just as reluctant as the right. Why?

The health care debate is something far more complex than anyone really talks about. The debate has been dumbed down to a few easily digestible points that each side can hurl at each other and feel like they've been good citizens.

Step one of the dumbing down process is to identify the evil doer or doers as the case maybe. Every story needs an antagonist and the addled brained masses like a good story, the more simple the better, it's Hollywood style.

So let's make the bad guys. On one side, insurance companies and big pharma are evil. Republicans are stupid. On the other, Obama is a socialist, the democratic congress is a bunch of spineless wavering ninnies.

I don't think any of the above is the truth, it's just the simple minded talking points that are easily digestible by the sound bite generation.

Is GE evil for researching designing and building an MRI machine, or, have they employed thousands of scientists, engineers, software writers, workers and sub-contractors and component manufacturers and sales and service and installation specialists to build a life saving machine?

Who pays for the development of the life saving machine? We do. Through our outlandish insurance premiums that go to the evil insurance companies that pay the ridiculous fees charged by doctors and hospitals so that they can afford to buy the hugely expensive life saving machine that the manufacture of which has employed thousands of people.

Much of the breakthroughs in medical technologies, and drug therapies have come because there is an monetary incentive to build the machine or make the drug. If there wasn't a big profit at the end why wouldn't GE prefer to make a better light bulb or a jet engine that runs on sand?

Sure France or Sweden might come-up with something every now and again, but the real hotbed for this sort of technology is here in the US because there is the possibility of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The irony is that if you dismantle the overly expensive and evil system entirely you might truly stunt the next really big advances.

Sure most of the civilized world can go all socialized medicine and aren't they clever for doing so and leaving it up to the US to continue to develop the next generation stuff. They aren't supporting the building of the machine, they can, however, lease one.

So is Obama a socialist for hanging his hat on a campaign promise that got him elected, and he hopes re-elected? Is the congress a bunch of addle headed buffoons, or do they understand the finer details that don't make good sound bites? Are the republicans stupid to suggest making small incremental changes in the system instead of broad sweeping changes? Would it be bad if the first thing we do is to only make changes that positively affect the un-insurable. Would legislating "pre existing conditions" out of the language of insurance companies be a bad step? I don't think anyone argues this.

This needs to be thought though, carefully, or unintended badness may result.