M$M keep repeating the GOP chant that the Dems and the GOP are separated by an unbridgeable gap on

Health Care Reform.

An examination of the actual situation (rather than repeating GOP "the best way is no way" propaganda) shows that this contention is not at all accurate.


1. NO more Pre-Existing Condition denials of coverage.

Just about everybody wants the insurance companies to not be able to deny coverage based upon 'Pre-existing' conditions. The GOP likes to whip up hysteria saying that the Government is going to "force" people to get insurance. Yet people want the insurance companies to be stopped from using the "pre-Existing Conditions" clause to deny coverage to people. Well, you cannot stop the insurance companies from using Pre-existing Conditions for denying coverage without making it a rule that EVERYBODY MUST BE IN THE RISK POOL. No Pre-Existing Conditions Denial is one side of a coin. The other side is "Everybody's in the risk pool". If people do not want insurance companies to deny care for pre-existing conditions you have to accept that everybody must be in the risk pool. There can be none of this: "Well, I don't want to get insurance 'until I need it'". The community of those to be insured would establish and enforce this rule. They would do this through an agency which would represent them. The likely candidate to be this representative is the Government.

2. Cost controls - Free Market competition vs Government "control".

The Corporate Lobbyist Party says they have a different idea for holding down costs. They say let the "free market" work. Let insurance companies compete across state lines. This is no different from the Insurance Exchange which is a feature of the House and Senate and Obama's recent HCR plans. Now, if you are going to have insurance companies competing beyond state lines, that would make it impossible for each state to regulate insurance companies (as they do now) making it necessary for some other entity to regulate the insurance companies. And what entity would that be?? ... you guessed it, the one government we have of national scope, the Federal government. ( A reality check is needed for the GOP's claim their 'plan' will promote competition across state lines. The Republican's plan is predicated upon individuals and small businesses forming buyers groups within each state. If buyers groups are limited to a membership of individuals and small businesses only within a given state then you will NOT get competition (between insurance companies) across state lines.)

3. The Corporate Lobbyist party has proclaimed warnings of the danger of Government 'control' of the insurance industry, that is, deciding what coverage would be appropriate for insurance companies to provide. Well, to have REAL price competition you must have comparable products. How many of you have tried to compare insurance plans during "Open Season"? Have you felt you needed a super computer to help you perform that comparison? THe fact is the insurance policies are NOT easily comparable. They all have different features and different degrees of coverage for different procedures/treatments. It is virtually impossible to compare them along an economic or cost scale. That is why the Democratic plans require the insurance companies to provide a standard constellation of coverage so they can be more readily compared by consumers. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET EFFECTIVE PRICE COMPETITION. But who should decide what the constellation of treatments/procedures covered should be? Should we let Blue Cross make those decisions for their competitors? That really doesn't make much sense. There has to be a Referee. And again, the referee has to be the public...i.e. the Government.


So, if you don't want the insurance companies to deny coverage for Pre-existing conditions, you have to accept that Everybody has to be in the Risk Pool. If you want insurance companies to face real price competition, then you have to set up a standard plan of coverage which they all offer - so they can be readily compared as to cost. And how do you set up and enforce these rules? You must have a referee. And the best candidate for that is the community of people to be covered by the insurance -- which, according to our system, would be best represented by the Government. And, if their is to be competition on a national scale then the insurance companies would have to be regulated on a national scale and the most obvious regulator of companies competing in a national market would be the Federal Government.

These conclusions have nothing to do with ideology. They are based simply upon the utilitarian rule that the approach that works best is the approach that makes the most sense.

intelligence.

Plus, repukes are cruel, vindictive, and greedy. There's no way to fight that except reduce them to the smallest big of government possible.

Unfortunately, voters will reward that greedy, vindictive cruelty in November.

'feeling the heat' from the internet. The internet is making it possible for people to become informed ...if they make the effort, of course.

find it easier to tune in Limbaugh or fox news than surf the net.We have become a nation of il informed lazy people.