I'm distraught with the health care debate - loosing faith!

I have found myself as of late being fairly distraught with the entire debate encircling health care reform. While being intimately involved in politics for the past 12 years (I'm only 28), this is the first time I feel like I am truly loosing faith in the system. While there have been instances in the past where certain members of congress or even the President (i.e. Bush) have given the impression that they are operating for corporate interests over the interests of the people, I have never felt that the majority of the government cared more for corporate interests and/or profit over the well being of the people. Call me naive, maybe I saw the world through rose-colored glasses, but these glasses have been beginning to cloud over as of late.

I (for reasons previously mentioned in this blog) have a personal stake in this debate and I would have greatly preferred a single payer system to be proposed by congress. I accepted the compromise, the went along with the so called "public option", believing the President when he said it would increase competition and keep the insurance companies honest. But now, the public option seems to be in the very least in deep trouble and there is now talk of co-ops - which are widely considered to not be an effective solution.

I recommend reading the "So What’s a Health Insurance Co-op, Anyway?" article by Anne Underwood of the New York Times @ http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/so-whats-a-health-insurance-coop-anyway/?hpw
She gives a great overview of what exactly a co-op is, an why in her opinion they won't be effective in lowering costs.

Continued on my blog @: http://amoreperfectunion-dc.blogspot.com/

they handed out the 3 Obama objectives for health care reform. Number 2 is the public option. Having that is the only way we will ever get this country to a single payer system. Listen in on the conference call this afternoon. http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/aug20web

I hope they are included in any reform. They put the power in the hands of people rather than corporations.

I love the non-profit idea (works for credit unions fine!), but we would have to have the co-ops be large enough that they can truly leverage the best price. But if all you can do is buy insurance from Blue Cross, where is the improvement??