Healthcare in the grand ol' USA

The senate is currently in session debating the health care bill. While this statement would have been cheered in the Clinton years, when the nation's hopes for universal coverage were dashed, now the concept has grown stale. The House passed a version of health care reform with something like a four vote margin. Obviously, the senate has one fourth less representatives, and will most likely be even harder. The shocking part of this process isn't that conservatives and the multi-billion dollar health care industry are in the trenches fighting it, its the honest-to-god stupidity of the American people who are against it.

The television commercials are saturated with ads of old folks asking why the government would want to hurt them, to deny them coverage. Opinion polls show that almost half the population, when asked if they support the bill, say no. In a country in which the top 10% of the population con trolls 90% of the wealth, its absolutely amazing that any common citizen would vote against something conceived to help the common man. We're not talking about 30% of the population that could stand to gain from this, or even 40%, but every single person not currently ensured by expensive, "elite" health coverage."

Although the Conservatives are certainly to blame, the democrats aren't blameless either. A group of democratic congresswomen will not vote if it doesn't include coverage for abortions. Of course the fact that most current health care plans don't include abortion coverage either seems to have no affect on their opinion.

If it were up to me, the single payer option would be the only option, and to hell with the costs, or the profit incentive. Hopefully the bill will pass, as it will be a big step forward. Maybe then the American people will awaken to the truth.