>>I have been thinking more about what you said yesterday about the health care reform bill being premium health insurance for all. That would really surprise me. I liken it to Social Security. That was never intended to make every retiree rich. It was intended to protect people from becoming destitute.
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>Exactly.
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>This "reform" is not designed as a minimum safety net as it should have been.
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>Free/cheap clinics designed to be second class with long lines, generic meds, and explicitly limited to "basic care" would be a great addition to our health care system. A safety net for the indigent, working poor, and any of us whose luck runs out.
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>Unfortunately, this monster is explicitly designed to wreck our existing insurance system.
>The requirement that insurance companies must issue to everybody regardless of health will bankrupt insurance companies almost immediately.
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>Instead of providing first class care to the uninsured - we are on our way to providing second class care for everyone.
>Such is socialism.

It is not socialism and I am really, really, REALLY tired of that epithet being hurled at everything Obama does. Nor do I agree that the new system will be the disaster you describe.

I don't hope it wrecks our existing insurance system but I do hope the industry is forced to change for our benefit. They have been putting us in need of proctologists for quite a while now.