So how's that health care plan coming along?

[Telly Savalas]

Or do the Democrats not have a domestic agenda?

[Warpy]

1. Right now, they're all pussyfooting around, trying to figure out

how to keep the for profit insurance companies in the catbird seat. None of them seems to want to talk about doing the only thing that will work: expand Medicare to cover us all.

Face it, fellas, the insurance industry got greedy and they blew it. Our healthcare, once the envy of the world, is now in shambles, top to bottom.

The infrastructure is crumbling, most people are underinsured and paying through the nose to keep insurance CEOs living like sultans, the uninsured are simply ignored, we're well behind the rest of the developed world in overall population health, or medical research is devoted to lifestyle drugs while antibiotics become useless, and some companies have moved operations to Canada, not to save on labor costs, but to save on our ridiculously high health insurance costs.

Medicare was supposed to have been expanded shortly after it was begun, but Congressmen, enjoying the best socialized medicine in the world, didn't think the population of this country was worth it.

It's high time for them to get their heads out of the corporate ass and think about who they work for when they're NOT on the campaign trail. Keeping the insurance companies in place will not work. This whole thing has broken down too far for any bandaids to fix it. The whole idea needs to be JUNKED and replaced with something that has worked for many years for the elderly.

We deserve no less. We should demand no less. And we certainly should accept no less.

[Telly Savalas]

2. They're trying to keep insurance companies in the loop?

That implies they're actually doing something on the issue. Is there any evidence of this? I thought they were ignoring it entirely.

[BlackVelvet04]

3. It's running neck and neck with the plan to reduce gas prices. n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. Wait until Michael Moore's Sicko comes out in the theaters. I have a feeling it

will help to move some mountains.

[Telly Savalas]

5. Just like Bowling for Columbine led to gun legislation

Fahrenheit 9/11 led to an end to the war

and Roger and Me and The Big One led to laws promoting corporate accountability?

Sorry to be snarky, but there are too many deadbeats in Washington right now for a documentary to make much of an immediate impact.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. There is a difference. Every American is subjected to the health care dilemma. You have millions of

us who are uninsured, and the rest that are insured, being screwed royally. Every American can resonate to that. Not every American has been affected by gun violence or had been ready to realize that they were being lied to by the Sociopath when 9/11 came out. I bet F9/11 would hit people harder now 3 years later.

[blondeatlast]

12. And major employers are also embracing UHC--even Wal-Mart has

done some advocating for it.

Eliminating the cost of employee health care can help US business become more competitive.

[blondeatlast]

6. Part of the problem is that the interest groups on the correct side

have to put out so many little fires before they battle the big ones:
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2007/may/blue_cross_commences.php

That particular page is updated every business day, fwiw.

PNHP is a great place to keep up on the latest happenings on the issue. They've recently made a nice overhaul of the site which previously looked, well, kind of thrown together.

[Telly Savalas]

7. Can we really blame Congress's lack of enthusiasm on interest groups?

Arnold has been doing more in the last 5 months to promote health care than our Democratic Congress. You mean to tell me they can't be doing more than a Republican governor?

[blondeatlast]

8. That particular piece is precisely about how Blue Cross is planning and funding

to fight Ahnold's legislation.

The money talks--and those opposed to UHC have aircraft carriers full of it not to mention decades of mythoilogy on their side.

I'm not making excuses--no one wants UHC more than I do, I promise. It's just not that easy--and lord knows this Congress is watching a lot of smoldering embers besides this issue.

[Telly Savalas]

10. But I'm not just talking about universal health care.

Any action would be nice, but we're not seeing it.

Of course UHC is the goal, but even more modest measures would make a big difference in the lives of many people. It's been 5 months. They should have proposed something by now.

[blondeatlast]

11. Exactly--see my point about Blue Cross's attack on the California plan.

A proactive plan is already in the works in CA--and Blue Cross is doing its damnedest to shut it down. And that is a pretty good interim plan. A shoddy, hastily put-together plan will set the issue back for years.

No one, but no one, on this board wants a national plan more than I do--you'll just have to take my word. But a bad plan will be shot down far too easily--I remember the Clinton plan, which wasn't nearly as bad as we were led to believe, but has become mythologically bad (it certainly wasn't a great plan, though).

Hell, we elected them to undo the damage done by the Bushites and you want a plan built from (almost) the ground up?

I give them a small pass on this one for NOW.