Reply #28: The polls showed 70% wanted the Public Option!!! What part of that do you not understand?

[CTyankee]

Seventy percent is huge. I didn't see polling on the Medicare buy in but I can tell you that for years I have heard from people in their 50s that they wish they could have Medicare. And a recent survey done by a couple of researchers who travelled around the country interviewing people about what they wanted in health care reform had a lot of people asking "What happened to Single Payer?"

I know there were some good things in the Senate bill, no doubt about it. But the glaring, 800 lb. gorilla in the room is that not one of the three aforementioned ideas, supported widely in the public, were shot down before even getting a hearing (single payer advocates thrown out of the Capitol building).

Individual mandates, without the public option, is a huge loser among the populace. With the PO it is at least tolerable. And I agree that we must have the individual mandate (if we are not going to have Single Payer which would involve a tax, like Medicare). People like Medicare, even tho it involves being taxed, plus it made sense to build on an existing structure rather than imposing a rather creaky, new structure.

We could even avoid the "government run" plan if we went with something like the Swiss have, which are private companies. They are, however, nonprofits and are strictly regulated by the government. And there is a strong safety net for those who cannot affort the private plans. Ditto Netherlands in many ways (the Dutch invented capitalism, fer god's sake!).

It could all have been so different...I am saddened that our party chose this direction...we could add another chapter to "The March of Folly"...