For Certain Reasons

I've heard them all at this point.  "So many people come from Canada to the US for health care."  "My uncle hated going to the VA hospital."  "This will 'hurt small business.'"  "The 'doctors' don't want it." "We have the best healthcare system in the world."

Enough. 

Show me some data, or shut the fuck up already.

Here are some of my anecdotes:

1.  I pay more in health costs each year than what I effectively pay in taxes - about 16% of my income - and I'm a relatively healthy person.

2.  I work for a small business that has seen its health insurance premiums increase by 50% with a slight decrease in benefits.  (My employer would be exempt from the mandates of the current plan under discussion.)

3.  An estimated 18,000 people die every year from lack of insurance within the country with the "best healthcare system in the world." 

Oops - #3 isn't an anecdote, rather an analysis by the National Academy of Science's Institute of health.  That's about six 9/11's every year, and nobody who's opposed to health insurance reform seems to want to acknowledge this.  Frankly, even if the reform under discussion leads to some inconveniences for me, I will gladly take them if it saves even a third of the people who would have died from lack of insurance.

I'm sorry, but if you disagree with that last sentence, perhaps this whole "civilization" thing just isn't for you.  I know that government isn't always the answer, but sometimes it is.  (And this is nowhere near the 'government takeover' that the obstructionists are trying to conjure up!)  Due to the complexity of health care issues, there will be bureaucrats involved no matter what.  I'll take the ones who are, at some level, accountable to voters rather than shareholder wallets.  We've let the private sector try to fix this for long enough.  It's time for us to stop behaving like selfish assholes and do the right thing, and that's what this particular reform bill is; maybe not the perfect thing, but compared to the status quo, the right thing.