Only in America

"A person’s last days can be spent in any number of ways. But on the phone pleading with an insurer, that’s only in America."

What a damning, enlightening world tour from T.R. Reid. His The Healing of America "blends subjective and objective into a seamless indictment of our own disastrous health care system, an eloquent rebuttal against the arguments used to defend it, and appealing alternatives for fixing it. Mr. Reid starts with a methodical clarification of terms. First: universal health care. Far from a single socialized system, the various plans other countries use to cover all their residents are quite distinct. Some are as private as our own, and most offer considerably more in the way of choice..."

Whatever you call it, the system enjoyed by public employees and office-holding politicians in this country provides a huge safety net and security blanket. If it's good enough for your congressman, isn't it good enough for your kids?

But don't think this kind of reform is going to happen until those congressmen are out of the pockets of the insurers. Are we going to do the right thing, hold the insurers accountable, and put that safety net where it belongs-- under all our people, and all our kids? Or are we going to just continue to do the insurers' bidding? I say it's time to "nail those guys"-- the ones with the pockets and the ones in 'em.