Reply #280: I think we have been talking at cross purposes and probably

[sabrina 1]

do agree on more than we disagree about. As for supporting a Single Payer system, I think most sensible people do support it. I am well aware that we are not going to get it right now, this country has been too successfully indoctrinated for too long into thinking that selfishness and greed, under whatever name they choose call it it, means success. That doesn't mean people should not continue to make the point that it is the only way, the most efficient and the most fiscally responsible system, not to mention, the most humanatarian.

Having said that, the two points where I have a problem with what you have stated. The first is maybe a misunderstanding of your position on my part and if so, then I apologize in advance.

You have presented the excise tax as a choice. I have said it is not a choice, as it is stated in the bill. It is a punishment and will, regardless of the intention, cause hardship for many people.

Otoh, if you are not talking about how it is represented in the bill, but are offering it as a choice which people who cannot afford it, can opt out of, then I could agree with that. The problem is, right now, those for whom it is not affordable, do not have that choice. As far as taxes as a punishment for not buying a product from a private vendor, that is unconstitutional.

There are some good things in the bill. Such as, if it works and there are no loopholes they can find, Insurance Cos being unable to refuse people with pre-conditions.

The problem with this that many people are concerned about, include rewarding and bailing out a failed Industry which up to now, has allowed people to die because they are motivated by profit not be saving lives. I don't see these same people changing their philosophy and am certain that they will find ways to get around the laws.

For example, there IS a fine for any Corp that doesn't comply with the requirement that they not refuse someone with a pre-condition. But the fines are small compared to the cost of covering such people. What is to stop them from accepting the fines rather than the patient? Just as you are willing to do, rather than buy coverage? If that becomes the way they get around one of the best things in this bill, how has anything changed? I am not aware of anything in the bill to prevent this from happening.

A less important point of disagreement. I do not believe that those who support a Single Payer system are the ones who need to grow up. I believe the spoiled, over paid, temper-tantrum-throwing Private Insurance Companies, when they don't get everything they want, are the ones who need to grow up. The adults are those who see the seriousness of allowing tens of thousands of people to die to maintain a failed system. The children are those who see those sick people as possible profit-making customers, even if forced to purchase their shoddy product or by subsidies from the government. They are like greedy, spoiled children who demand that only their desires are met.

But the biggest problem people have with this compromise bill, and it is a compromise, is that it further cements into the culture, a belief that privatizing such necessary life-sustaining necessities such as health care, is an acceptable policy and slows down the process of ending the practice of profiting from life and death and joining the rest of the civilized world in accepting the fact that health care ought to be viewed as a right. Having experience with the European system where health care is a right and no one has to worry about getting care when they need it, such a for-profit system based on people's lives, is simply abhorrent. This country has a long way to go before it finally grows up and can take its place among the more mature nations of the world.