Reply #8: that amount, on its face, is so ridiculous that it screams for TRUE reform . . .

[OneBlueSky]

of the healthcare system . . . there are people in this country who make less than that in a year . . . and a lot more for whom thirteen grand would represent half or more of their annual income . . . and this is the system that we're supposed to build on to "reform" healthcare? . . .

what really pisses me off is that everyone involved in healthcare reform knows what the real problem is, i.e. that 30% or more of our healthcare dollar is skimmed off the top by corporations for their profits, executive salaries and perks, marketing and advertising, and redundant administration and overhead . . . yet very few with the power to do anything about it are even willing to acknowledge the problem, much less deal with it . . . that's how much power these corporations have and how afraid our lawmakers are of their wrath . . .

true healthcare reform will never happen until profit-making corporations are removed from the equation, and the money they skim off the top starts going to providing healthcare services rather than to things that have absolutely nothing to do with healthcare . . . we aren't even close to that solution yet, and whatever "reform" is ultimately foisted upon us will have the very same flaw that the current system has, i.e. that a third of the money paid into the healthcare system never reaches the patients' bedsides . . .

profiting off of the illnesses and injuries of others is despicable, yet it forms the very foundation of our healthcare system . . . I'm extremely disappointed that Obama hasn't acknowledged this reality and dealt with healthcare reform by attacking the real problem with the current system . . . instead, he's proposing to build on that system, which will produce nothing but a minimally modified dysfunctional system that will have the same flaws as the current system and that will be in need of massive overhaul again within a year, two years, three years, or however long it takes to collapse onto itself . . .