Ah, I see your aunt has the same sedan chair service I do!

But seriously, any ideas on how to reach the hunkered down folks? How are they getting their information? (No way are we going to get pro-health care reports on Fox News, for example.)

Over the past few years, I've been pleased to see loss-of-insurance and inadequate insurance storylines in fictional programs such as Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs, as I think that has actually helped raise awareness that there's a problem with things as they are.

Republican aunt in South Carolina is convinced she will have to "wait in line" for treatment if the health care system is altered. That's what all of her neighbors tell her.

But then, they elected Mark "Appalachian Trail" Sanford, who also refused stimulus money for their "corridor of shame" educational system in SC.

Liberals have to stop preaching to the converted and turn to the hard-nut cases, who do nothing but hunker down in the suburbs and are afraid of any sort of change.

I previously wrote: "If you're injured in an accident or having a heart attack you can't shop for the best deal in an emergency room/trauma center."

Agore replies: "That's exactly the situation medical insurance is supposed to be for."

I think you mean the medical emergency that costs big bucks. And I agree.

Point is, when the emergency happens you don't have the ability to shop around for the lowest price.

"Are you old enough to remember the days when an individual could buy "major medical" that for a reasonable premium would cover high-end trauma and disease?"

Yes - in fact, I'm old enough to remember doctors with little black bags making house calls.

"Because an individual could shop for it you could, pre-need, pick out a set of high deductibles that fit your personal situation."

Yes, you could. But think about why it was so affordable. One big reason was that there weren't so many treatments available, particularly expensive, invasive treatments. A lot of conditions that are now treatable resulted in death or disability back when.

"This has nothing to do with the "insurance" you are now forced to get from your employer, and your employer alone, which is really a prepayment scheme with rationing."

In theory, no one is forced to get insurance from their employer. Everyone can always opt out of employer-provided medical insurance. Of course in the real world most people don't have anywhere near enough money to do that.

So what happens is we retain the myth of 'choice' and 'free enterprise' but in fact we have rationing, waiting in line for treatment, huge management/administration systems, etc.

The most convincing proof is in the numbers: how much other countries spend on health care, their life expectancy, infant mortality, lost productivity, etc. The USA doesn't come anywhere near #1 in those things - except in dollars spent and percentage of people uninsured or driven to bankruptcy.

Dear Garrison, whose words have often comforted and amused me,

I don't know if you were just trying to be kind to the righties, but saying

"the simple less-is-more approach is the genius of conservatism -- get out of their way and the people will provide -- and it holds true in many areas of life, such as education, the arts . . ."

doesn't really fly, I think. First of all, "less-is-more" is no less liberal or progressive than conservative: efficiency knows no ideology. But "get out of their way and the people will provide," which is indeed straight out of the right-wing homilies, doesn't make it in either education or the arts. Otherwise, why is public education withering on the vine, and why have you, and I as well, had to go to a benefit for a musician? Because the "people," meaning not "we the people," are actually not particularly interested in standing up for education and the arts.

To set their filthy feet on public property ....... let them do their bribing on private property.

The American people truly do get what they deserve ...... they are willfully ignorant of what is going on ...... I hate to say it but they just don't care.

I am EXTREMELY happy that someone pointed out that I may have to wait in line under a socialized health care system.

Right now, if I need medical care, I can, just like they do on TV, pick up my phone and WITHOUT EVEN DIALING, obtain an appointment WITHIN THE HOUR with whatever doctor I desire. Within 5 minutes a sedan chair arrives to ferry me to my appointment.

I'm just not willing to give that up, and I can't imagine why anyone else would be, either.

I mean, we're all getting this level of service, right? Wait for an appointment? Who does that?

writes: "doctors need to make a living."

Sure - but how much of the money spent on health care in the USA actually goes to doctors, nurses hospitals and other providers, and how much to insurance companies and administration?

"how can our government pay for it, when it is already $11 Trillion in the hole?"

The government doesn't pay for it. WE pay for it. We're paying for it now, in both obvious and hidden ways.

"Why should we pay for Octomom's kids, along with her welfare?"

Octomom's kids were the result of IVF, an elective procedure. I don't know who paid for it - do you? IMHO, insurance of any kind should NEVER pay for someone in her situation to conceive more kids!

"Why should we pay for smokers who kill themselves?"

One way to fund a better healthcare system is with big taxes on things like tobacco.

We pay for the smokers today, anyhow.

"Why should we pay for the healthcare of a nation in which obesity is the number one killer?"

See above about tobacco. Note that as smoking has decreased, obesity has increased. That's not a coincidence.

"Let people be responsible for themselves, get our country out of the hole, into the black, and then maybe we can pay for public healthcare."

How do you propose that "people be responsible for themselves" - specifically?

I agree that smoking and being overweight are very bad for health, and we should have incentives to do healthy things. But who decides where the line is drawn? Do we deny health care coverage to anyone who has ever smoked? Or who is more than 5 pounds over ideal weight?

The big reason the budget is so unbalanced is that for years and years the administrations have pushed for big spending but not big taxes. Look at what the debt was in 1980, and what it was in 1992, 2000, and 2008. See who it was that dug that $11 trillion hole, and what they spent the money on.