Health care

If you haven't seen it before, or even if you have, please take a look at this earlier post on single payer health insurance. We still need to keep unrelenting pressure on Nancy Pelosi.

Heed the words of Congressman Jim McDermott:

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) predicted Sunday that the U.S. would adopt a single-payer, national healthcare system.

"It's in our face," McDermott told a university healthcare group in a speech, according to the Monterey County Herald. "We can't avoid it. That's why something is going to happen."

McDermott also said that constituents and grassroots activists could significantly advance the cause of a single-payer system.

"There will be a campaign to support this from the grass roots. You need to place pressure on your congressman," he said. "They will react to people asking them, why don't you do something? There's no question people can make a real impact."

The PUMA-friendly blogs have responded magnificently. The larger Obama-obsessed blogs have not.

If you still travel in those circles -- or if you know people who do -- please do whatever you can to convey the message to the D.U. and Kos Krowds. We still need to inundate the Fax machines of Nancy Pelosi and all other congressfolk. Again and again, day after day.

Like it or not, those sites have large readerships. We need their aid.

The ideas discussed by Obama and Baucus are disconcerting and could be disastrous:

Establishment of a National Health Insurance Exchange. The Obama Plan proposes a National Health Insurance Exchange ("Exchange"), through which businesses and individuals would be able to purchase private health insurance.

Individuals insured through the Exchange proposed by President Obama would be able to keep their insurance when they change jobs, but they might be responsible for premiums if not covered by their new employer.

This scheme will accelerate transferring salaried jobs to freelance status.

The alternative is like unto it: The Healthy Americans act, which the newly Democratic Arlen Specter seems to favor. This act would function as a single bullet aimed at both your health and your wallet, because it would end employer-based coverage while maintaining a private insurance system. The proposed salary increase will soon disappear in today's economy. (Employer to you: "Take a lower paycheck or lose your job.")

Meanwhile, an individual mandate would be implemented, forcing every American to purchase one of the options offered by their state's newly formed Health Help Agency (HHA). The HHA's will have a menu of private insurance plans...

Again, this system encourages the transfer of salaried jobs to freelance work.

Private insurers already take up one-third of your health dollar: That's why Americans pay more than everyone else in the world does for health care. Private insurers are leeches. They serve no purpose.

Single payer is the way to go. But it won't happen unless thousands, hundreds of thousands of people demand it. Like it or not, we need the aid of the Obots in this crusade. Tell them to go here and learn how to do what needs to be done.