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Doc, I think you mean well, but you seem to see the issue as more black and white than I'm comfortable with. This bill has as much to do with healthcare as the Patriot Act has to do with patriotism.
Do I think that we could have better access to affordable healthcare in America? Yes, I do.
Do I think there is anything in this bill which will help poor or middle class Americans get better access or prices? No, I don't. And you can't think of a single example of how it helps either.
In my experience, especially as I get older, I find my own weight and health much easier to support when I am more flush. Potatoes and pasta cost less than salmon and grapefruit. Times in my life that I had the choice between going hungry and going on welfare, I chose to go hungry. According to NIH, more poor people are morbidly obese than rich people. But that is a minor issue.
You and I disagree on a basic assumption. I am stone cold certain, based on my own experiences and the experiences of those close to me, that, even catastrophic health problems can be cared for for less money than insurance costs. I do not believe I can afford insurance and I don't want to be forced to buy it, regardless of my analysis of my own budget, or their likelihood to be there when I need them.
America is not a nation of totally rich people who are too heartless to help all those totally deserving poor people and must be forced. You can judge the health of an economy by the size and strength of its middle class. The middle class in America is being squeezed out. Adding another burden to the back of the middle class, in the midst of this disaster of an economy, is misguided at best and deliberately sadistic at worst.
The new healthcare bill will re-define a lot of people who identify as middle class, such that they will be forced to accept government assistance and/or greatly decrease their already limited quality of life to pay for insurance.
That is ugly and tragic and will simply pave the way for more lunatic fringe demagogues and a more polarized nation. As we start getting more truly frightening people elected to public office, the people truly responsible will be the politicians who ignored the needs of the middle class, painting the world as all rich versus poor.
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