Oops. Herr Gropinator has gone off the reservation:

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Here is what to expect from plans like these and other plans in which insurance companies are kept in the overall equation. Higher costs, the poor getting really screwed, and people still being forced to make impossible choices. Unlike some, I’m happy to be in the front of the line “pushing insurance companies into the sea.” I worked for one, and the physicians in my family deal with them daily. They Are Evil. So long as we continue to worry about all those poor, sad little insurance company execs not making enough money by denying children with rare cancers life saving treatment because it’s “experiemental,” we won’t have a solution.  Read more 

A lot of people are talking about the various “mandatory” plans floating about various congressional and gubernatorial offices right now. Ahnold’s, Wyden’s, etc. It’s all the Rage, for young politicians: it’s an issue that is still unmade in the national media (what is to come, not what is) and if you’re enterprising you can ride this political wave for a generation or more. If as a consumer, you’ve ever had problems with Phase One of the plan to keep people separated from their dollars and their health, you know what I mean. You’re never more ready for activism than when you’re reviewing your year-end out of pocket for health care. But get ready to feel the need to go all Che on some ass: Phase Two is a little more “humane” in that everyone gets to pay some people to do nothing, while getting nothing. Or worse.

Right now, we’ve reached a point, after going on 40 some years, where we’ve decided we don’t think the old or the poor should just die when they can’t afford good care. Actually, just the old- it’s the anger of the upper-middle class that’s really driving the grassroots scream for reform. Biff and Muffy can’t stand the idea that they’re spending 3K on Grandma’s private care and being told to pay even more for subpar converage. Those of us down here on the botton have experienced quite a different reality for some time.  Read more