Two stories today tell you a great deal about Republican attitudes toward health care in this country. One, predictably with the end of a Congressional session, was done on a Vampire Vote in the middle of the night. Via WaPo:

Republican lawmakers, with little public debate, quietly added a billion-dollar health-care benefit to legislation that was rushed through Congress just before it adjourned Saturday morning.

...The legislation allows anyone to shelter thousands of dollars annually in H[ealth] S[avings] A[ccount]s, regardless of how much that person pays for a health-insurance deductible. [The short: it was raised from $2,700 for an individual or $5,450 for a family to $2,850 for individuals and $5,650 for families.)

Now let's look at the story from the Post-Gazette:

But by most estimates, nearly half of all private-sector workers in the United States do not have a single day of paid sick leave. And more do not have a paid day off that can be used to care for a sick child.
[snip]
According to a recent survey, 65 percent of New York City's working poor -- the 340,000 people who work and live in households below the federal poverty level of $16,000 for a family of three -- have no paid sick days.

"People with families who are living paycheck to paycheck don't have the savings to make up for a lost day's pay," said Nancy Rankin, director of research at the Community Service Society of New York.

Of low-income workers without paid sick days, 31 percent said they did not have even $100 in savings to fall back on, the survey showed.

So we have a nice summary of the Healthcare Problem Republican Think Needs Work, versus the real world. Speaker Pelosi, maybe on the 101st day you could take a look at this?

Single payer now, dammit. Start expanding Medicare eligibility in both directions, five years at a time, from 18 up and 65 down. In four years the whole country is covered, it's off the back of businesses, and the only problem is all the bloodsucking parasites at health "insurance" companies who have to find productive work besides telling you that you aren't covered for something.