I'm a Republican, I came here to check out Thom's website becuase I had seen some of his YouTube's videos on the Constitution's Founders.
(Flame Away - I'm tough).

I think what you're missing is that most Republicans are centrists. They want healthcare for everybody and they don't care a damn about the insurance companies.

But, like your suspicous of the insurance companies, they do not want to turn healthcare over to the government. That's who they distrust.

If you look at how corrupt congress is on both sides and how dysfunctional things the things are now the government runs. You'll never get that 60% to agree to it (I'm in that camp).

However, the right does see the government as an effective guaranteeor of rights. A good referee if you will.

There are compromise positions that fix the commonly agreed to problems - provide care - and make the insurance companies compete (for us not for themselves). But, congress has to move to the middle.

It's feasable to pass somethign on a non-partisan basis and that may be what happens but the democrats take a huge political risk (and it could be rolled back).

If both sides would stop demonizing the other - you'd realize that most folks are not that far apart on what we want here:
1. Coverage for everyone that does not bust the budget (by GAO standards no CBO). You can't have an "all you can eat" buffet like Medicare - but you can get coverage.
2. Everybody in the same risk pool.
3. Insurance reform
4. Legal Reform (yes it is important and a significant cost driver).
5. Efficiency Reforms

Not a popular opinion I know. But, congress will not put the insurance companies out of business in a direct confrontation - they have taken too much money and need it to get re-elected.

Better to get something done that helps the most people now and revise it later.

@Thom: Prostitutes perform sexual acts forced upon them by asymmetric sexual power, economic desperation and true acts of force. Senators have no such compulsions inflicted upon them. The majority of them consciously and intentionally choose to debase themselves and mete out the decrees of the entities which hold their purse strings.

You owe prostitutes an apology.

Thom
Re: Dept. of Peace

Who was it that said that it takes the invisible fist for the invisible hand of the market to work?

Ben,
re: Name me an industry...

Answer: WAR!

Guaranteed profits are the providence of cartels. The Health Insurance Industry is a publically protected cartel. My heart bleeds for all the folk that will lose their jobs when the insurance bureaucracy is doffed by Health Insurance Industry once they lose their government protection.

I believe that the “Public Option” would best serve our interests by “emanate domain”ing / socializing these operations into Medicare to protect and re-educate this portion of our workforce.

@Catsrule: It is probably easier and more realistic to think of Ayn Rand folk as the Renfields of corporate entities. They devour rights, the lives of others and worship money in a pale imitation of the Multi National Enterprise BUT they are bottom feeders, happily ‘scarfing’ up insects ant toadying up to their larger and nastier corporatist brothers. Their sycophantism is purely about themselves and the glory they imagine will befall them by guarding their vampiric overloads.

@Thom: While you are correct about the brutality component of slavery, economic thralls are still thralls.

Have you seen this Will Farrell PSA to protect insurance companies?

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/041b5acaf5/protect-insurance-companies-psa

@Catsrule: Unfortunately, the Ayn Rand folk seem to be whores for the corporations BUT what they really do is totally drink the Kool-aid for individualism.

They are about the individual over society. Corporations hide/mitigate the individual from risk. The net effect is similar to pro-corporatism or pro-MNEist (Multi-
National Enterprisists) but it approaches the whole affair backasswards.

The basic problem of individualism is the very act of encoding the concepts of individualism REQUIRES the tool of communal animals: LANGUAGE. They are beyond the very definition of oxy-moronic.

I agree with Richard! What kind of person is Thom's guest! Talk about apathetic! I can't believe people have attitudes like that! Earn rights? We the people as a whole are born with certain inalienable rights! This guy is a economic shill for corporations with his swill about needing to earn things that are our rights to begin with. His ilk only believe in corporate rights.

I'm a Republican and have been trying to follow this debate and read to become better informed. I appreciate Thom's liberal but mostly centrist positions and analysis skills.

I think everybody sees this as a moral issue - and so there's broad consensus that we need reform. Nobody wants to hear of anybody going bankrupt or dying because they don't have are.

Problem with what's posed above is it's going to break the bank. (Go to YouTube or your favorite website and look up GAO or Peterman Foundation on Healthcare). Medicare is already broke actuarially and isn't getting any better.
Putting 40 million more people on an "all you can eat" buffet is not going to work. Seniors won't like it - but their care will most likely get rationed in future - or they'll pay more (hopefully born by those who can afford it).

Both parties have been fiscally wreckless over the last 50 years and we are on the verge of bankruptcy. (Foreign buyers will not buy our debt and our own people are getting to the point they won't either. If you can't sell the debt, you can't deficit spend). If the ship goes down, we all lose most if not all of what we have.

So, let's agree that what we're trying to do is:
1. Something we can afford to do now and in future (this was one of Obama's conditions). Everybody into the same risk pool (only way you can pay for this). Ugly fact is any insurance scheme only works because more healthy people are paying in than sick people.
2.Get rid of the bankruptcies and needless deaths but retain some incentive for folks to take care of their health. Offer everybody at least catastrophic protection, routine checkups and preventive care. You may need to add folks with chronic conditions (cases of general welfare). If you want full fledged health care - buy a private policy (this can also be regulated. Government lays out plans. Dictates everybody pays same price.). High risk cases and pre-existing conditions go into pool that all companies pay into (to prevent gaming the system - which is what's going on now. Only way to generate more proftis).
2. Fix the rules. The left seems to have an agenda against the insurers. Nobody defends anybody's criminal behavior. But the reality is, the insurers have their infrastructure in place. I don't want to replace it. I want to regulate it.
FIx the rules (portability, must take everybody, must pay all claims, limit executive pay like a public utility, etc).
3. Fix the defensive medicine problem with medical arbitration boards.
(see France's example). Legal costs aren't a huge problem - it's all the hidden cost around defensive medecine. It's also discouraging people from practicing medicine. I don't have anything against lawyers - but the system is also out of whack here as well.
4. Implement all efficiency measures. Comparative medicine. IT Infrastructure and common paperwork systems for claims and payments, etc, etc.

Folks on the left side of this issue need to understand that there's large percentage of folks out there who do no t trust the government to run anything.
But, those same folks do no believe that companies should run wild either.
Government is perceived as a good referee but a terrible player. Agree or not, this is the problem with Medicare Part E or the Government taking direct control.

I stil don't see why this compromise won't work and it's what we can afford.
But, both sides have dug in and won't budge. I'd rather see this done than nothing pass. It can improved upon later (you can squeeze the insurers out of business). Baccuses plan with the non-profit coops would work (I think). But it really comes down to how it's executed.

The real problem here is that the Insurance industry has bought both parties. We really need campaign finance reform - bad. And/or term limits.

Sorry for the book. Let's hope something gets done.