Logic, facts, socialism, fascism, guns and health care
November 28th, 2009
When a 2,000 page piece of legislation traverses the legislative sausage making process, it is a large target for those who want to take pot shots.
When you are trying to fix a system that is broken in lots of places, it is not an easy process.
Let’s remember what we are trying to fix.
The system does not cover everybody. Estimates on the number of uninsured range from 30 million to 70 million depending on whom and how you are counting.
It’s expensive. Our economy already sets aside more resources per person than any other country on the planet. We pay more in taxes for health care than any other country on the planet.
We are not a healthy country. Relative to other industrial countries, we don’t live long. Our babies die before they reach their first birthday. Our pregnant mothers die in child birth.
That’s a lot of fixes.
In fact, the 2,000 pages is a pretty mediocre start. If either the House or the Senate version survives intact, it still will not cover everybody. It still will be expensive. And there isn’t much reason to believe that we will be any healthier as a result.
But it is a start.
And let’s not forget that simple in the form of single payer (HR 676) was taken off the table very early in the process.