Yes, what has happened to you is terrible, and the system needs to be fixed, BUT......

is usually the start of whatever reply that you get from a conservative when you have a
one-on-one discussion with them on how the health care system has failed you in some way.

The underlying message in their reply is always that they agree the system has problems,
and the insurance companies or health system shouldn't be allowed to do to you what
they're doing to you, but they're not going to support anything to fix those problems
if it might result in any change to the level of service that they themselves are
receiving, or if they even had to pay one cent more to enact that change.

A good analogy might be a restaurant where 80% of the population can go and eat
caviar and Dom Perignon champagne for $5.00 and be served in 5 minutes. There's proposal that would
allow 100% of the population to eat filet mignon and wine instead, but they'd have to pay $6.00
and there would be a ten minute wait for a table. The 80% won't put up with that, because
they've already got theirs.

And they'll argue that the wait won't be ten minutes, it will be 3 hours, by looking up
all of the worst run restaurants on the days when their ovens were broken, and then present
that as being the norm.

I live and work around these cretins all day long. The conversations I have to hear on health care are amazing. Remember, this is from employees that have some of the best health care insurance that a company can offer.

1) The government will decide what care you get.

YOU MEAN AS OPPOSE TO THE INSURANCE COMPANY!?! The government basically won't decide those things, they'll decide what they pay for things, JUST LIKE THE INSURANCE COMPANY. But the reality is that health care is political as anything so just like one can never cut social security, or mess with the infamous "third rails" in politics, I'd almost rather "the government" be in this role than the insurance companies. Even now, with HMO's and all, our state government has passed all manner of laws dictating what kinds of rules the health insurance companies can and cannot enact.

2) It'll take forever to see a specialist.

Tried to see certain ones lately? 6 weeks for a dermatology appointment. 6 - 8 weeks for a neurosurgery. Heck, the primary care folks usually have at least a 2 day wait, and if you need something like a physical, an annual, a mammogram, etc. you usually have to schedule at least 6 weeks in advance, my wife schedules them 3 months in advance.

3) It'll be expensive.

Ours is paid something like 80% by the company. I know folks that are paying the full price out of their own pocket, even for their "employment based" group plan. These right wingers around here have no idea how expensive health insurance already is. When you realize the magnitude of the administrative costs associated with health insurance, the government almost can't do worse. Medicare is something like 3%. Even if they were inefficient otherwise, they'd have a hard time catching up to the cost burdens that the insurance industry applies.

4) The government will screw it up.

The same folks who want the government to run more prisons, have a bigger military, want bigger police forces, more courts, more prosecutors, and oh by the way always want the government to build more roads, don't believe that the government can run an insurance program (even though they already run something like 3 of the biggest ones in the world).

All my life I have been told of all the potential I have. You will go far. I've worked for some of the best companies had the best benefits. Now I am having a conversation with a pretzel. Yeah thats right! Someone who thought a pretzel would be a clever avatar. If I had health care right now I would see a psychiatrist. I am finally convinced we need health care now!