More on health care reform (split thread)

[ladelfina]

RIch, thanks very much for that link! I have to study it more closely but this really jumped out at me, from the McCain side:

Reform the tax code to eliminate the exclusion of the value of health insurance plans offered by employers from workers’ taxable income.

Hmmm.. he has some nerve claiming only Obama might raise taxes on the middle class (claim which is not even valid on its face). I know the candidates are just throwing out ideas and much more depends on Congress w/r/t both taxation and health care once the new admin. is in. We saw Clinton's promised healthcare reform get scuttled right from out of the gate (maybe it deserved to be and maybe not --I agree that having the private insurers at the table, as the Clinton plan did, is sub-optimal-- but it also seemed Congress was less than willing to even debate it or offer any alternatives, and was happy to allow it to be derailed by an never-ending series of minor scandals).

There will always be a certain libertarian (read: greedy) strain on the part of those who "have" access to health care not really wanting to risk (theoretically) "giving up" something to cover the "have nots". We've seen this over and over again on the board and it really doesn't seem to matter that luck and the Grace of God play a far larger role than someone's private "poor choices". People in America want to believe that they got what they have through their own hard work, and ONLY through their own hard work.. that's the myth that keeps people chugging away, and good luck trying to modify that mentality. Although polls show that most people would like a universal health care system, I just don't see it fitting into the rhetoric that most politicians are willing to run on. The insurance lobbies are very, very powerful.

Interesting! (poll from last year):

Fifty-one percent of the GOPers said universal healthcare coverage should be a right of every American

TheHill.com - Poll shows many Republicans favor universal healthcare, gays in military

I think it takes quite a long time for politicians to respond (if ever) to shifts in the desires of their constituents.