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If you think pencil-pushing insurance types are bad. Just wait till you get the full, total dose of medicine run by the people who gave you places like the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Post Office. Get better as quickly as you can, dear.



You mean the same people who give the poor and elderly Medicaid and Medicare respectively (the DMV is a state thing, though there is a state component to Medicare and Medicaid)? Funny they have been around for over 40 years, and I don't hear anyone bitching about them (aside from some elderly people who are easily manipulated and are clueless that Medicare is run by the Federal Government, that are afraid of losing the Medicare that they love so much should they have to go with a Federal plan...oblivious to the fact that they are already a part of such a program, and the fact that Medicare isn't going anywhere). You also mean the same people who run Bethesda Naval Medical Center (Hospital)? Funny, when someone in politics in Washington gets sick, they all seem to make a bee line for Bethesda, as opposed to a hospital from the private sector. I'm sure all those rich politicians just go there because they know they will get such substandard treatment since the Federal Government runs it.

As for the Postal Service, if they didn't provide that service, trust me, nobody else would! Often times it is the government that is left to provide services that nobody else in the private sector wants to do (not enough money in it). Aside from in the area of package shipping, no one else wants to do it.

I always hear how bad socialism is (without anything backing it up, as if it's just accepted as fact....so anyone can just say it), though you didn't use that argument (just many people do). But it is everywhere you look. Artificial prices on milk, produce, etc. that are regulated by the govenment to protect smaller farms. Paying farmers not to grow crops. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania having a monopoly on and running the alcohol trade in PA (not in bars, but actual bottles of liquor) through the "State Stores" (oops, I mean "Wine and Spirit Shops")that they own and operate (the Commonwealth, as a business owner, is actually the largest single purchaser of alcohol in the USA). That is just a few of many examples. I bet the farmers in our heartland just "love them that there Socialism" when it clearly benefits them (though they are oblivious as to what it is).

In short, it seems to me that the private insurance companies are pouring tons of money into defeating REAL healthcare reform (using premium dollars as they are intended to be used as usual). What are they afraid of? Real competition? If they do such a great job, why would anyone want to switch to the public option? It's not like private companies would be put out of business by law. Oh that's right, they don't do that great a job. They are pricing themselves out of business. Sooner, rather than later, this system will collapse upon itself. Furthermore, more and more businesses will see that they can no longer afford to provide coverage. Also, the COBRA subsidies that the Feds are giving for now won't last forever either. Then we will have even more and more uninsured citizens. If our system was so great, why aren't people just MOVING here PERMANENTLY to take advantage of our great healthcare system? Personally, I wouldn't mind waiting 6 months for a nose job, if it meant better quality healthcare for all Americans. No wait, I'm sure the insurance companies are pouring millions into defeating reform because they care about us, and they are afraid that we will be left to die in a substandard system controlled by the Feds until we come before the death pannels. Yeah, right. They don't care about anything but their bottom line (and the luxary suites at every major stadium and arena that all of their policy holders pay for through higher and higher premiums).

Finally, the government does do a lot of things right. Would you feel comfortable with having the military, police department, among other services privitized? We already have rationed care in the form of HMOs, etc. The government can't do any worse, and the drug prices would drop as well.