As a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama and, essentially, the entire field of candidates, called for health care reform in America.
Three things are true:
- Democrats won handily won in November, representing a mandate for a new domestic policy in America.
- Americans, in poll after poll, have been calling for substantive health care reform, including a public option.
- Congress seems bent on defying the will of the people and is determined to pass a health care bill that does little to reform the system.
The latest piece of evidence is today's NY Times/CBS News poll.
The national telephone survey, which was conducted from June 12 to 16, found that 72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan — something like Medicare for those under 65 — that would compete for customers with private insurers. Twenty percent said they were opposed.
But in the poll, the proposal received broad bipartisan backing, with half of those who call themselves Republicans saying they would support a public plan, along with nearly three-fourths of independents and almost nine in 10 Democrats.
Nearly 6 in 10 said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to make sure that all were insured, with 4 in 10 willing to pay as much as $500 more a year.
Hmm, that seems pretty clear, but not to Senator Lindsey Graham (appearing on ABC News "This Week"):
Sadly, some will buy into Lindsey Graham's line of bullshit. Everyone else will know the rhetoric is just a ruse, scare tactics intended to trick the public into settling for something other than what they clearly want. The notion that the government would stand between the patient and the doctor is some pretty tired old nonsense. First, one look at Medicare, a government run single payer system, would dispute Graham's claim that the federal government makes the health care decisions. Secondly, anyone that currently has health care insurance knows full well that the insurance companies are, indeed, the ones standing between the patient and the doctor. The patient is miles away from making their own medical decisions.
The president has pretty clearly stated he supports a public option and he's got the support of the American public. President Obama's style is to provide a set of principles to Congress and allow them to flesh out the details.
It doesn't work.
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