HR 676 is far better than Clinton's, Obama's or Edwards' plan, and you know it!

[calmblueocean]

I find it really distasteful to hear people stridently arguing over whose health insurance plan is really "universal".

None of them are universal. Not in the sense of health care being a right.

Kucinich was the only candidate running who had the wisdom and the guts to call for true universal health care, the kind that doesn't involve for-profit insurance plans, economically strategic denials of care, & unaffordable co-pays and deductibles, by advocating HR 676.

Listening to people fight about which of the plans currently on the table is "better" is like watching dogs fight over table scraps. Whether a family can afford to purchase health insurance shouldn't even be an issue. Wage garnishment shouldn't even be an issue. It ought to be rolled into our taxes and the bill distributed progressively across all taxpayers. That's how you keep a nation healthy. That's how you make sure no one is left behind.

But we're not getting that.

The legislative votes aren't there now, and the advocates have been shut out of the public debate. So we're getting something else. Something inferior and inadequate.

We're like a patient with a brain tumor who, when he can't afford the proper treatment, is given a Dixie cup full of water and a couple of painkillers and told to go home and lie down. That this is all that can be done.

And what do we do? We fight over whether we should be getting Tylenol, or aspirin, or Advil.

Whatever we end up with will alleviate some of the symptoms, but it won't cure the disease. It's a tragedy to watch good people tearing each other apart over solutions that don't solve the problem.

Yes, I understand that the system is stacked against the kind of health care reform we really need. I understand that politics is the art of the possible, that the perfect is the enemy of the good, that some is better than none. I think all three plans may do some good in that regard. Edwards plan would use the government to promote competition and bring prices down. Obama's plan would stop insurers from rejecting applicants based on pre-existing medical conditions, and finally allow cheaper imported drugs. Hillary's plan would limit premium payments to a percentage of income. For what they aspire to, all have their own strong points. Out of the three, I prefer Obama's plan solely because I do not prefer mandates for a flawed for-profit system that would make the government the bill collector for private stockholders.

But while they all have their good points, none of them are truly good enough. We deserve better than "health insurance". We deserve universal health care.

Think about that the next time you get sucked into another thread on which plan is best. HR 676 beats them all. Don't let the limitations the media has imposed limit your discussion or advocacy. Don't tear your fellow progressive apart defending various tweaks to a system that makes money off illness. Point out what is good about what's on the table, acknowledge what isn't, and remember to contrast what we're going to get with where we need to go.

[no name no slogan]

1. When it comes to healthcare, our candidates have no cojones

HR 676 is by far the simplest and cheapest plan there is.

Unfortunately, our candidates act like Republicans from 1974.

[Solon]

2. Exactly, people have their heads too far up their favorite candidates asses to see it...

but its a simple truth that their health care plans fucking suck.

[stimbox]

3. Hopefully whichever Democrat gets the Whitehouse will sign HR 676 into law!!!

:bounce:

[calmblueocean]

6. If the Congress could pass it, I'm sure any one of our candidates would sign it.

It's the passing of it that's the hard part, though.

That's why I miss Kucinich so much. He was the only one up there doing the hard work of making people aware that there is a better way.

[newmajority]

4. You're absolutely right, it is.

And God bless Kucinich for it. I only wish we lived in a country where he was electable.

Now ask yourself this question: Which of the current candidates health plans leaves the door open for progress to an HR 676 type of system?

Under Hillary's Romneycare II, everyone will have forced corporate coverage, and they'll have it deducted from their paychecks whether they like it or not. But everybody is "covered", so where's the incentive to improve the system beyond that? There isn't one. At least not in the viewpoint of those who would be in charge under 8 more years of BushClintonism.

[Blackdog4241]

5. That's why I'm...

Still voting for Dennis in the primary.:applause:

[Adelante]

7. I know it

I don't much bother talking about the plans on the table. Neither is one I want although better than no change.

[jacksonian]

8. believe the phrase is "perfect as enemy of good" -nt

there are still real differences on health care being worked out on the campaign trail and are essentially on referendum in this primary, even if the perfect plan is not represented. These choices will make real differences in the future.

Don't think you can nominate someone with the weakest health plan and ammend it later. That process is thousand times harder and riskier than taking a strong stance toward universal care.

[2rth2pwr]

9. hr676 has been languishing in congress and will never pass, much less

get voted on. It is a perfect example of the Kucinich way, introduce something that he has not spent any time getting support for and that won't pass.

[calmblueocean]

11. The founding fathers couldn't bring themselves to write slavery out of the Constitution either.

It was so politically impossible that slaves weren't even counted as an entire person for the purposes of determining how many representatives each state would receive in Congress.

And yet the abolitionist movement grew, and people recognized the moral rightness of it, the common sense of it, and eventually stood up forcefully against slavery, until the institution was destroyed.

The same thing happened much more rapidly during the civil rights movement. Racist laws that were thought to be impossible to change were struck down after a movement grew to demand it.

So what you think is impossible doesn't really phase me. I know that times change. It won't happen this year, but it could happen in my lifetime, if I work with others to make it happen.

[2rth2pwr]

12. We had a civil war to settle that. nt

[Solon]

15. First, it would be more appropriate to call it the Conyers-Kucinich way...

but I digress. The fact is that, as of right now, HR 676 has about 78 co-sponsors. Now, our job, AS CITIZENS, is to put pressure on our Representatives who DIDN'T sign onto it yet to co-sponsor it ASAP, that and get more Democrats elected in 2008 and get them to support it as well. Do that and you might be able to build up momentum to actually have the bill pass the House, and even the Senate, if we play our cards right.

Neither Obama's plan nor Hillary's are going to pass Congress as they are presented now. That's a simple fact. They aren't Emperors, they cannot wave a magic wand and viola, there plans are now law and enforced completely intact.

[jackson_dem]

16. Yup

Kucinich's MO (since he began running for president...) is taking the most left-wing position on every issue and then criticizing the others for not being true to the faith for having realistic positions.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

10. K and R. Both plans suck. Single payer is the way to go and it needs to come from Congress.

Great post! :thumbsup:

I especially like this turn of phrase: I do not prefer mandates for a flawed for-profit system that would make the government the bill collector for private stockholders. I think that's why a lot of us intuitively reject these mandates, despite the arguments about SS and Medicare also being mandates. They may take money out of my check for those things, but they're not giving it to Humana and Pfizer.

[calmblueocean]

13. Just wanted to bump this

because so many people are discussing the health care plans, and I don't think too many saw it earlier. Thanks!

[leftstreet]

14. k&r

[Tatiana]

17. KICK

[quakerboy]

18. Thanks for the reminder.