You give my man ‘props’ and yet at the same time chastise him as well – fair enough – but your take is based on experience and grounded in reality and I respect you for that.

Some of my life experience comes in the form of patient rights advocacy and working in coalition with single-payer health care reform organizations. So, I appreciate you not being so dismissive of the infamous “no” vote and that you acknowledge that “someday, generations from now, single payer may become a reality thanks to people like Dennis.”
But I ask, is the House bill better than nothing? I don’t think so. It simply throws more money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system, with only a few improvements at the edges, and it further entrenches and augments the central role of the insurance industry.
The danger is that as costs continue to rise, coverage becomes less comprehensive and the “public option” (already set up to be 25% more expensive than the average private plan) is rigged to trigger its failure and people will conclude that we’ve tried health reform and it didn’t work.
The real problem will be that we didn’t really try. Cowardice ruled the day. Insurance companies are the problem, not the solution.
You are an apologist for all things Obama – I am an apologist for all things Dennis.
We simply capitulated to the highest level as this bill will enshrine into law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry; falls far short in effective controls on skyrocketing insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital costs, does little to stop insurance companies from denying needed medical care recommended by doctors, embraces religious-right extremists as it obliterates for millions of women their fundamental right to choose and by requiring at least 25 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue coming from taxpayers.
I would rather see us do nothing now, and have a better chance of trying again later and then doing it right. As it stands now, we have rewarded, mandated and institutionalized the for-profit health insurance industry as our leading economic anchor and made the goal of universal health care for all Americans (Medicare for all) much more un-attainable. The House and Senate bills, unless radically amended, are not precursors to single-payer, but rather the termination of such legislation for the foreseeable future.

You give my man ‘props’ and yet at the same time chastise him as well – fair enough – but your take is based on experience and grounded in reality and I respect you for that.

Some of my life experience comes in the form of patient rights advocacy and working in coalition with single-payer health care reform organizations. So, I appreciate you not being so dismissive of the infamous “no” vote and that you acknowledge that “someday, generations from now, single payer may become a reality thanks to people like Dennis.”
But I ask, is the House bill better than nothing? I don’t think so. It simply throws more money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system, with only a few improvements at the edges, and it further entrenches and augments the central role of the insurance industry.
The danger is that as costs continue to rise, coverage becomes less comprehensive and the “public option” (already set up to be 25% more expensive than the average private plan) is rigged to trigger its failure and people will conclude that we’ve tried health reform and it didn’t work.
The real problem will be that we didn’t really try. Cowardice ruled the day. Insurance companies are the problem, not the solution.
You are an apologist for all things Obama – I am an apologist for all things Dennis.
We simply capitulated to the highest level as this bill will enshrine into law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry; falls far short in effective controls on skyrocketing insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital costs, does little to stop insurance companies from denying needed medical care recommended by doctors, embraces religious-right extremists as it obliterates for millions of women their fundamental right to choose and by requiring at least 25 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue coming from taxpayers.
I would rather see us do nothing now, and have a better chance of trying again later and then doing it right. As it stands now, we have rewarded, mandated and institutionalized the for-profit health insurance industry as our leading economic anchor and made the goal of universal health care for all Americans (Medicare for all) much more un-attainable. The House and Senate bills, unless radically amended, are not precursors to single-payer, but rather the termination of such legislation for the foreseeable future.