Progressives must be ready to kill a bad health care reform bill

At one time the talk around the Internet was, "Open up the what Congress has to everyone! But when the suburban white boys and girls of the ideologically pure left Internet found out that the Federal Employees Health Care Benefits Program (FEHBP) was not a secret, for government employees-only single payer system, but a pool of private health insurance and union-owned health insurance companies, 70% of costs subsidized by the federal government with the rest picked up by monthly premiums, copays and out-of-pocket deductions. Didn't sound so good then, did it?

Now the ideologically pure left is ranting and raving for a single payer health care system. That and only that will do, never thinking that all this "discussion" of a Canadian or British single payer system feeds right into the right wing "we don't want no socialized medicine" feedback loop. And the misinformation and ignorance of how the Canadian or British systems function from the ideologically pure left is as palpable as the willful ignorance of the right.

Yet I question if any of the ideologically pure left have the courage of their convictions to go into the mouth of the reactionary beast and just talk with the fear-ridden denizens of the neighborhood senior center, fundamentalist church or local bar whose opinions are formed by Rush, Glenn and Bill'O. I challenge the ideologically pure left to make the case for a single payer health care system to the elderly widow, the truck driver, the unemployed factory worker. Please, make the case for health care reform to these people. Not to people like me, I'm already in that choir.

However, failing that I do sincerely hope you of the ideologically pure left get your wish to "kill" any health care legislation "tainted" by compromise with the corrupt corporations. You will all sleep well at night. More than likely you of the ideologically pure left are college educated and well entrenched in the coordinator class. What do you care if a few dumb rednecks, yes the very ones who screamed at the townhalls, are bled to death by ridiculously high monthly health insurance premiums, denied coverage for pre-existing conditions or "rescinded," dropped by the insurance carrier usually right before an expensive and life saving procedure.

If you, the ideologically pure left, kill whatever you consider a "bad" bill, the chance for a "good" bill will never happen, at least in my lifetime.

Sleep well.

As a life-long independent (small "i') who is usually moderate and believes in consensus and compromise but who leans left when I sense danger, as I have for, especially, the last decade, I will in no way support compromise with people who have shown that they do not seek it. As their last leader said, we are either with them or against them. When it comes to the need to fix a totally broken healthcare system, I am absolutely against compromise.

It is better to have no bill at all than one, much like Medicare D, which does not address the major problems we face, like the high cost of medications.

What difference does it make what a physician orders if you can't afford the medications or other treatments, which is often the case, even with private insurance?

Seems to me, the Democrats missed a golden opportunity when Bush and Cheney were intentionally scaring the begeesus out of Americans with false threats of bio-warfare against the eastern seaboard in order to convince the uninformed that Saddam was going to spray us with smallpox or some other dread disease. Why wasn't healthcare a national security issue? Why is it not a national security issue now?

After the war of aggression against Iraq, we probably are in danger of just such an attack. All it would take is a dozen or so suiciders flying into various major hubs around the U.S. with some highly contagious, deadly disease coming into contact with their fellow travelers aboard the airliner and in airports, train stations and the like to infect hundreds of thousands of people who might not seek treatment until they had infected thousands more because they don't have enough insurance and can't afford to take a day off for what may seem like a simple case of the flu in the beginning stages. Not only would this kill possibly millions of Americans and others from around the world, but could disrupt commerce at a time when we can ill afford such a crisis.

If there is no public option that will allow bargaining for lower medication prices, as the veterans have, I say no deal. Just let the whole rotten, corrupt mess collapse as it is about to. Maybe then we will get universal health care like the rest of the civilized world has.

I happen to live in California, where the terrible Prop 13 has taken California from the top of the national way of life to down near the bottom, (NO) thanks in large part to local Republicans and their Luddite ways. It is from this basis that I have to endorse the idea that the Frankenstein health care "reform" bill as currently maimed by corporate interference and limp-wristed administration compliance needs to be defeated.

It's too bad for Obama that he staked the success of his entire administration at the end of a long rope held by Blue Dogs and other overt corporatists instead of being like Lincoln and FDR and leading the charge to achieve his goals. But he will still get his million a year to write his memoirs even though those he abandoned on Main Street will be dumpster diving behind the mansions of the Wall Street pirates who helped to kill what reform he might have produced if he had any balls. I hope he doesn't choke on his escargot! His health plan might not cover his treatment!