'The conscience-free Lieberman is probably just feeling the pangs of a phantom "conscience," like amputees report experiencing after they lose a limb.'

Quite true. Annoyingly so, actually. The same could be said for many politicians.

Two Harvard researchers chose today to release a study showing that 1.5 million American veterans have no health insurance, and more than 2,200 die every year because of it.

If these researchers considered their work so imperative, why did they sit on their results until today?

The following are excerpts from Robert J. Samuelson writing in Newsweek about the methodology used to arrive at numbers like this:

One study "found that every year in America, lack of health coverage leads to 45,000 deaths," [Baucus] told the committee.

The 45,000 figure cited by Baucus is itself an unreliable statistical construct built on many assumptions. It's based on a study of 9,004 people ages 17 to 64 who were examined between 1988 and 1994. By 2000, 351 had died; of these, 60 were uninsured. The crude death rates among the insured (3 percent of whom died) and uninsured (3.3 percent) were within the statistical margin of error. After adjustments for age, income and other factors, the authors concluded that being uninsured raises the risk of death by 40 percent. They then extrapolated this to the entire population by two techniques, one producing an estimate of 35,327 premature deaths and another of 44,789.

This whole elaborate statistical edifice rests on a flimsy factual foundation. The point is not to deny that the uninsured are more vulnerable (they are) or that extra insurance wouldn't help (it would). The point is that estimating how much is extremely difficult. Advocates exaggerate the benefits. Remember: Today's uninsured do receive care.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/216299

The numbers are well-funded and organized propaganda, pure and simple.

Don't all veterans qualify for VA healthcare?

So you think that because the VA drops the ball on vets (I'll bet most are WW2 vets who would be getting a early dirt nap under Sheik Obama), that Sheik Obamacare would be better?

Under Sheik Obama the only thing that would happen is people of all ages would be getting the early dirt nap. ALL healthcare would be rationed, illegals would get better care than tax paying Americans and society's freeloaders would end up never needing to work.

The reasoning of libtards is foggy at best. No government program has ever worked out as planned and healthcare for all would be a economic disaster and ruin the best health care in the world today.

Sheik Obamacare is not about healthcare it is about control. the government would place a healthcare cost on what you eat, drink, do and where you live and your profession. If you think insurance is bad, Sheik Obamacare will be murder! Just as a jihadist would want!

You want real reform, it is called tort reform!

You want real reform, it is called tort reform!

Two questions for you:

1) What fraction of our national healthcare costs can be attributed to litigation?

2) Shielding doctors from the consequences of malpractice is unlikely to produce satisfactory results. I think we need some means of motivating doctors to use due diligence, and some means of dealing with them when they don't. What are your suggestions?

Wow is Glock 45 nuts or what, if Limbaugh and Hannity ran for office this guy would vote for them. Saying that President Obama wants to take over people lives and tell them what to eat when to sleep and that health care would be rationed and on and on. People like Glock 45 are nothing short of paranoid lunatics, fortunately for America there numbers are few, but they do make a lot of noise. Oh by the way America does have the best health care in the world with one caveat, if you have the cash.

It is a national scandal. But it's no less a scandal for non-Vets. America, the richest country in the world, lets tens of thousands of American citizens DIE each year for lack of affordable health care coverage.

The answer to this problem is simple: Single Payer, universal health care. No middle men. Everyone is covered, simply by being a citizen of this supposedly free and compassionate nation.

Everyone would get a card. Show that card in any hospital, doctor's office, etc. and they bill one payer. The government. The government, to keep costs waaaaay down, does everything. No outsourcing. No privatization. No private sector involved with the public insurance program whatsoever. 100% non-profit and public.

Everyone is covered.

I'd take it further, too. I'd end the FICA tax and trust fund system. I'd pour all of that money into the general fund. No more trust fund raids for Defense spending, etc. All taxes would come into the general fund, and the new Medicare for All would be a regular part of the normal budget system. As would Social Security.

Where would I get the money? Tax the rich more and cut Defense spending. Tax corporate America more. The GAO recently found that 2/3rds of American corporations regularly pay zero in taxes, and 90% pay 5% or less. They're ripping us off. And the wealthiest Americans have seen their tax burden cut by a third during the Bush years, and prior to that, major tax breaks for the last several decades. It's time to reverse a bit of that.

We could pay for Medicare for All, and make Social Security solvent for generations by increasing taxes on the rich and corporate America, and cutting Defense. Ending the FICA tax would be an excellent tax CUT for everyone making less than 106K per year. Those making more than that weren't paying it in the first place on earnings above the ceiling.

Time to get our priorities straight. We should invest money in people, in health care, in education, in the Environment, in public works projects, infrastructure, food and water safety, green energy and transportation, and stop this insane corporate welfare for the Military-Industrial and Wealthcare Industrial complexes.

In an interview on PBS some time ago, Coburn was asked what he thought our system should be. His answer was that we should all help each other? Isn't that what universal health care would do?