You Lie! People WILL Die!

Okay, so Joe Wilson seems to have stolen the show last night for calling the President a liar on something rather plainly not a lie, because the media needs something to focus on rather than the actual message of whether and how to get universal health care (on the other hand, this site amused me for a good 3 minutes of refreshing). Wilson seems to have saved the non-policy chatter from focusing on Hillary's dress, which I think you could see from space.







Actually, what are we trying to get here? Universal health care? Government-run health care? Health care reform (whatever that means)? Cheaper health care? Fairer health care? More readily available health care? With Obama's flip-flop on a health insurance mandate, it seems to be more along the lines of "universal health care." And with the public option slated to cover only 5% of Americans who can't get insurance anywhere else, this goal should prove popular to the insurance companies. But it still seems like health care will be tied to one's workplace (businesses will either have to provide insurance or pay a penalty). Things will be fairer in the sense that you cannot be denied based on pre-existing condition, and no annual or lifetime caps on coverage. So, essentially, everyone who wants health insurance can get it, and you have to get it, and you don't have to worry about leaving your job. I think this is all very important. I'm still unclear, though, how we're going to reduce costs and reduce premiums. That's the other killer out there. I guess that's more along the lines of the details that are to come.

Anyway, Obama's seemed to counter the whole idea from the below post -- that end-of-life care and ultra-high-cost procedures like transplants would have to be reduced in order to pass health care legislation. When praising Ted Kennedy, Obama said that he "was able to imagine what it must be like for those without insurance; what it would be like to have to say to a wife or a child or an aging parent - there is something that could make you better, but I just can't afford it." Well, if a kidney transplant would make you better, and you can't afford it, then we're picking up the tab? I just don't see that working effectively.