DK showedf that this election should be about both Values AND Pragmatism

[Armstead]

Seeing Dennis the K on the Cancer forum brought home to me what the Democrats really should be doing this time around.

DK both called for a sweeping reform of healthcare based on basic values such as common decency and fairness. He also related it tyo people's own self-interest, by explaining how it would simplify coverage for everyone and make healthcare affordable.

An easy to grasp statement of principles, and a plan to achieve them.

BUT he ALSO had the detailed nitty gritty information of how this idealistic notion of Universal Health Coverage would work, down to specific numbers.

Thus he fused what too many people dismiss as "pie in the sky" goals with a realistic roadmap on how to get there.

Sure, some will dismiss it as "too radical" or "too socialist." But that's just an excuse for perpetuating the problems we have in this country.

DK's message and goal -- Get health care out of the clutches of Wall st. and the Insurance companies and make it a basic public service -- would resonate with many mainstream Americans, if repeated anbd supported as an actual possibility by the Democratic Party as a whole.

That same approach should be applied to many issues. Stake out an actual position based on common values, and pound away at it.

[Vidar]

1. Great post. Thank you. You have my recommendation.

[slipslidingaway]

2. Thank you, getting the message out is not in the interests of Wall

St. and the insurance companies. I would love to see a real debate on healthcare between the candidates.

Below is an in depth discussion of the Kucinich healthcare plan and well worth the time IMO. Each video is about a half hour.


snips from the first video...

Speaking of the government paying for Medicare and Medicaid which props up insurance company profits by removing two segments of citizens who have high health care needs.

Arnie Arnesen

"We left the insurance company with the youngest, healthiest people and no wonder they are making a profit, because we've taken away the most expensive part of healthcare, which obviously is going to constantly sink us like a stone. Because insurance is about spreading the risk, we don't spread the risk, in fact what we do is prop up the insurance industry. Which is why they are so frightened about changing anything in the way of a system because it is about their profits and their CEO's and not about our healthcare..."

Dennis Kucinich

"For profit insurance companies make money not providing healthcare..."


Kucinich Health-Care Program Part-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gjA3CV95i4


Kucinich Health-Care Program Part-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FNp0wjAgfo

[Armstead]

3. Yep, the idea of spreading the risk has been abandoned

Good business practice is to limit your coverage to the people least likely to need it.

But it's lousy social policy.

We somehow need to put in place a system where we are "all in it together" in terms of distributing the costs among all of us. After all, a young healthy person today is tomorrow's senior citizen with health issues.

[slipslidingaway]

4. Exactly and the good business practice is causing the middle

class to shrink which is not in the country's best long term interest.

[slipslidingaway]

5. Kick, two more R's ? n/t

[LWolf]

6. K&R for common values,

for persistence, for universal, single-payer, not-for-profit healthcare, and for Dennis Kucinich.