The last week or so make me optimistic. Hubris-stuffed insurance execs overplaying their hand, smug bankers overplaying their hand, conman Balloon Daddy overplaying his hand and giving Senators time to think about the polls which show the voters, right and left, want the public option and goddam it we want it now! And make the rich pay for it while you're at it!

I like hope.

Here goes you will pay 40% excise tax on cady plans....SENIORS will pay 15% more for medicare $150 more per month, services will be reduced and all in secret. Cap and tax is next........What a wonderful administration...Thanks Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Waxman, Boxer, Feinstein and his magesty BO.

Don't require too much care (from specialists) or need too much in terms of cost. Of course all these rules are not in force if you are members of congress because for them it is always "do as I say, not as I do".

Public option will be like all things provided to "the public" . . . just like gubmint cheese, filling sometimes in a general sense, but giving no answers to anybody.

My extended family lives in countries with "Public Health" services . . . there is a reason anyone with any kind of where-with-all buys private insurance, because if you are too sick, or too old (or too young) palliative care is all you get, or a helpful push down the stairs.

Perhaps for the many politically compromised that write tomes on these pages these things are not on their radar, but this is the reality.

There are good Doctors regardless of country or medical system. But socialized medical systems punish overachievers and reward those who do only "what they have to" . . . Kind of like most "gubmint work".

Ted Kennedy would have been dead more than a year before he died if he had to rely on what the UK, Canada, Germany, Norway, Cuba, etc would have provided him if he was "just" a citizen.

Nobody is buying the GOP/ Insurance companies scare propaganda anymore...

Finance stalled in the hopes that support for a government option (Socialism!) would abate. It didn't, so the Big Insurance Cos got put out a couple of bogus reports; those galvanized a solid majority in favor of a public option. Now Reid is stalling while those with the gold try to find some way to sway enough people to stop supporting the public option so that he has some cover for dumping it.

We need a grassroots effort to revoke health coverage for all government employees and political retirees until everyone has basic coverage.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/27/news/economy/state_of_working_america/index.htm

“the 2000-2007 business cycle was the first ever in which the nation's middle-class families had less real income at the end than when they started.”

The Republicans had the White House for 8 years.

They decimated the middle class and transfered massive amounts of wealth to the richest 1 percent.

...and then there is this:

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/harvard-medical-study-links-lack-of-insurance-to-45000-us-deaths-a-year/

This is still the Republican plan for health care reform: Seize the wealth of the middle class and let them die.

They only have 40 Senators (thank God for small favors). Any filibuster would be courtesy of the corporate-towel-boy bloc of 'Democrats' -- Ben Nelson, Conrad, Landrieu, Lincoln and whatever the hell the Moaning Scrotum Lieberman calls himself nowadays.

But that said, for being 'dead' -- as the wingnuts and Beltway whore press assured us -- the public option looks like a pretty good bet. I guess the teabagger hordes were as ineffective and meaningless as I suspected. Sucks being you, irrelevant ones!

The waiting is only the hardest part if you get what you want in the end. The waiting is only a pain in the ass if in addition to that what you get is not what you were promised, but a radically inferior substitute. Then it's the getting that really sucks. So I think this is a vital time for renewed and maximum pressure to get what you want, not what they think they can pawn off of you at the last second.

Yes, "waiting" -- if we get a public option then get used to waiting to see a specialist, waiting to undergo a procedure, waiting for new life-saving technologies to be developed, waiting for the deficit to go down...

MSNBC had an article (later removed) on Monday of this week relating how people who smoke, are "not in shape" and/or are "overweight" will be forced to undergo medical exams via their employers or pay a higher rate for this wonderful government "help". They will also have to pay a higher rate even if they undergo these exams.

Why people who call themselves liberals would think this is liberal is very odd. Their love of meddling in other people's lives is scary.

Excuse me, but as an Amercian, my body belongs to me, not the state.

The nannying from the "liberal" control freaks will never end if such a government program comes into being.

If you love liberty, vote, 'No'!

They are genocidal liars, and 45K + die a year as proof of that.

The private health insurance companies are a total racket. Health Insurance companies contribute absolutely nothing to society. All they do is move money from the payee (you, and/or your company) to the payor (doctors, hospitals etc.); but they have been so piggishly greedy all they do is skim more and more money by creating absurd reasons to deny claims and raise rates. People complain about the possibility of higher taxes but we are already paying through the nose for insane rates with no guarantee of service. Medicare only has about a 3% overhead but private insurance has a 30% overhead rate to pay CEO's insane salaries just for cutting people's coverage! Its time for health care reform with a strong public option to level ther playing field and make our country more competitive again.

Think of how our economy would be so much stronger if anyone could start a small business or work for themselves without having to worry about paying out of pocket for health care. It would unleash the entrepreneureal spirit nationwide and make us more competitive globally. Right now all that money is going into a vast hole, to pay some nameless CEO's, not to mention just because you paid into the system it doesn't mean they have any obligation to pay out, and will go out of their way to look for ways not to pay out. In California, I think the average rate of denied claims is 21%. Thats just immoral and unethical.

You moron Republicans can't even get greed right....its in your best interest to have a working, competitive society. Idiots.

If you're so afraid of enroaching socialism because of a public OPTION, then opt out of medicare, social security, the fire department, the police department; and stay the fuck out of our National Parks and get the fuck off of my public roads!

Better yet, why don't you America-hating, Antichristian, pro-genocide pricks move to Somalia where you can be finally freed from the oppressive burden of government once and for all. Frankly, we're sick of your lies and your bullshit!