Medicare for All

Instead of sending more "Kill the Bill" emails, we need to turn our attention now to leaders in the House, insisting they stick to their guns and improve on what the Senate has passed.

From the moment he was elected, Obama has governed not as a progressive liberal but as a corporatist liberal. Progressive liberals hoped Obama would be like FDR. Instead, he's been like Bill Clinton on steroids.

A contradiction problem has been a feature of Bush Republicanism for a while now, but it's only during the past year that the gap between contradictory statements has narrowed down to just 24 hours.

I am still in a haze over the deal struck last night on the public option. Clearly, there is both a lot of bad news in the reports coming out so far, and some good news as well.

Democratic leaders have short-circuited the reform "debate" and permitted the process to be hijacked by health insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Obama is trapped in the same kind of thinking that initially demoralized his hero Abraham Lincoln, who ultimately rejected that kind of thinking, regained his morale, and fought against what was morally wrong.

Now, the first thing I want you to know is that I'm no health care policy expert. Far from it. But, like the rest of us, I have a body and a mind tha...

The real head-scratcher for serious media-watchers right now is what the "war" between the White House and Fox News was meant to distract us from this week. The "war" itself is laughable, for a number of reasons.

The insurers have demonstrated that there is no reason any more to cultivate their support. That being the case, Congress has a new chance to do the job right.

Open up the perfectly good public option we have -- Medicare -- to anyone. That would actually strengthen Medicare because younger, healthier people would be joining the risk pool.

With a robust public option dead, the only way to prevent a massive Democratic-sponsored bailout of the health care industry is to regulate insurance premiums and put a trigger on individual mandates.

Obama created the space for the Democrats to work. He outlined a lot of stuff, but did not get specific in the semantics. He opened up the lane once again for prima donna Congresspeople to drive in for the layup.

We need to see President Obama's teeth Wednesday night. I want to know that there is some steel behind the cool facade.

The New York Times recently reported that the Obama administration is heeding a list of six lessons from previous efforts to reform health care. Unfortunately, the three most crucial lessons were left off the list.

Everyone loves Medicare -- so much so that the Republicans are using it as a club to kill this complicated and expensive health care reform scheme.

Regardless of which side of the religious and socio-political spectrum a child's parent or guardian is on, that child is innocent. Children are not billboards for hatred, malice and lies.

Ted Kennedy is putting both his legacy and his sense of entitlement to his office before the interests of his constituents.

Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!

If it were up to the House, we wouldn't be talking about dropping the public option for health insurance. Maybe we'd be talking about Medicare for All. That's why we need more progressive fighters in the Senate.

One of these days, a national leader will embrace national health insurance and fight for it. Until then, we will keep paying more money for less care.

Forces calling for health care reform are gaining momentum. But if by "reform," they simply mean "universal coverage," I have to disagree.

Last week's action by Congress to override Bush's veto of the Medicare bill was a landmark step toward reversing the tide of privatization of the program over the last three decades.