This comment within a comment I read in today's New York Times set me to thinking...
"But, as a lawyer friend, Manuel Wally, put it to me, “When it comes to health it makes sense to involve government, which is accountable to the people, rather than corporations, which are accountable to shareholders.”
OpEd, The Narcissus Society
by Roger Cohen
New York Times
February 22, 2010
Mostly, I reserve forming a solid opinion of all that's being debated. I will tune in when we get closer to a compromise, or rather a first generation solution. They won't get it right the first time, or the second, but we need to make a start.
We as Americans look down on nations divided by wealth and poverty--caste systems--yet our country is hardly better. There are the proverbial boot straps, but those are mostly out of fashion and harder to reach these days.
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I can't resist adding a few more of Mr. Cohen's comments that followed the above quote...
All the fear-mongering talk of “nationalizing” 17 percent of the economy is nonsense. Government, through Medicare and Medicaid, is already administering almost half of American health care and doing so with less waste than the private sector. Per capita Medicare costs for common benefits grew 4.9 percent between 1998 and 2008, against 7.1 percent for private insurers. Why not offer Medicare as a choice — a choice — to everyone? Aren’t Republicans about choice?
The public option, not dead, would amount to recognition of shared interest in each other’s health and of the need to use America’s energies and resources better. It would involve 300 million people linking arms.
Or we can turn away from each other and, like Narcissus, perish in the contemplation of our own reflections.
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Amazing how Narcissus has come up two times in sucession in this blog...
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