A Timid Observer

Until rather recently, I’ve been feeling pessimistic about whether Congress would manage to pass meaningful heath care reform this year. My opinion is changing, and for the better.

Barely a few weeks ago health care reform seemed all but dead. In the House, progressive Democrats staunchly held their ground in support of a robust public option to be included in the House bill, vowing to kill any bill that did not include one.

“NObama has called for innovations such as a public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers, but he has not insisted on it. It was not clear Tuesday the degree to which he might press for various proposals in a new speech.” AP via Yahoo.

Drudge says that Politico says he’s totally backing down from the Public Option. I knew he was going to crack. TURKEY!!! You should have run as a Republican, you would have gotten more stuff done, honestly.

The Popular Capitalist View

There seem to be some persistent and wrong assumptions about policy issues that are used to frame positions and prescriptions such as mine, particularly in the currently volatile subject of medical or health care reform. So, in order to better the understanding and serious consideration of what I have presented here, I have decided to take a step back and place medicine and its reform in an economic context.

This post was originally published at the Internet’s newest and hippest blog devoted to the health care debate, Give Me Health Care or Give Me Death! Check out the site when you get a chance.

I always knew Newt Gingrich and I disagreed on a lot of things, but after his many appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I felt I could take comfort in the fact that while we disagreed, he was still an intelligent, reasonable man. This weekend my image of Mr. Gingrich was shattered.

Draine On Society

The national discussion on health care reform has recently taken a dangerous turn. What should have been a meaningful discussion on goals and feasibility has been transformed into a campaign of deliberate misinformation. The goal of this campaign is not to enact any meaningful reform whatsoever, but to foster an atmosphere of fear and misunderstanding that will threaten any attempt to change the status quo.

The Vatican seems to relish every opportunity it gets to stick its nose in people’s private lives, especially in decisions regarding personal health. Sometimes, however, this intrusiveness can twist the message the church wants to send and flies in the face of reality.