What I would like to hear President Obama say about health-care?

[kentuck]

I would like for him to tell Congress to scratch everything and start over. He should tell them to come up with a single-payer plan that will cover everyone and report back to him by the end of July. Why should he do this?

Because it appears that they are not going to do anything resembling reform anyway. Since he is a poker player, he should ask for more than he expects to receive. He should have done this to begin with but he didn't.

Only when you start from a position that has room left to maneuver do you have room to negotiate. If he had started with a single-payer plan, he could have compromised with a public option plan. Since he started with a public option plan, he has nowhere to compromise. It is all or nothing.

However, I know this is not going to happen. The strategy has already been set. We can expect the future to be very much like the past. Health-care costs will rise about 8-10% a year and employers will be pressured more and more to pick up the slack. When people lose their jobs, they will have no coverage for themselves or their families and the politicians will be talking about the opportunity missed in 2009. If only we had...

[NightWatcher]

1. all I want to hear him say is "here ya go"

I want some of that crazy socialized medicine that they have in the rest of the civilized world

[babylonsister]

2. For you:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5883349&mesg_id=5883349

House Democrats "Anxious To Take On" Health Care Reform Opponents

and a review, sort of:

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/06/early_reviews_of_house_health_care_walking_back_from_the_ledge.php

Early Reviews Of House Health Care: Walking Back From The Ledge

[kentuck]

3. I think the obstacles to reform are in the Senate...

moreso than in the House.

[LWolf]

4. Good luck.

If that unlikely scenario comes to pass, I will certainly support his efforts.