Much of the debate surrounding the competing health care proposals surrounds the price tag -- whether we'll spend $1 trillion, or $800 billion or somewhere in between over ten years to rein in the worst insurance company abuses, "bend the cost curve" and provide millions of uninsured Americans with affordable coverage.
Republicans are fond of talking about runaway spending and the deficit, and they're doing their best to paint President Obama as a profligate spender for trying to fix health care.
I'd just like to make one point that should be completely obvious: This is insane. If there's a better illustration of the old phrase "penny wise, pound foolish" I can't think of one.
Paul Krugman pointed out in July that even if we spend $1.3 trillion, this is 4% of what we're projected to spend on health care over the next decade.
$200 billion is 15% of that.
So, we're seriously considering leaving millions of Americans without affordable insurance and missing our best chance to force the insurance companies to clean up their acts over 0.6% of what we'll spend anyway?
This is like if you and I went out to dinner together and the bill came to $50 and we spent two hours at the restaurant arguing over who should pay 30 cents. While thousands of people are starving.
If that's not insanity, I don't know what is.
Bill Moyers says "Money-Driven Medicine is one of the strongest documentaries I have seen in years and could not be more timely. The more people who see and talk about it, the more likely we are to get serious and true health care reform."
There is a video gallery at the website for "Money-Driven Medicine" that has some smaller clips from the program that I think everyone should take a look at. It won't take a lot of time and I hope you will be better informed after watching the clips.
http://www.moneydrivenmedicine.org/video-gallery
Bill Moyers also some some really great interviews he has had on health care reform at his site. This includes his interview with Mr. Wendell Potter, the CIGNA whistle blower. After you get to his PBS site, scroll down to "Related Media".
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08282009/profile.html
ALSO you can let your voice be heard at the White House at the barackobama.com site for "Health Care Action Center" You can enter your information AND COMMENTS in the "Add Your Voice" section. You don't have to donate.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/health-care-action-center/
YES We Can!
AND YES We MUST Support Health Care Reform NOW!
Live Better, Live Cheaper. Get national health care passed!