I agree with everything Gov/Doc says and see his excellent suggests as a co-equal front on our outrageously priced and outcome challenged medical system. But sooner and not later payment mechanics need to be addressed.

It is probably good that Obama's health care platform consists of a few slogans and catch phrases. He says he wants universal health care. He wants greater cost effectiveness for our medical dollar (here, heres rise up from the Archimedes choir). Sen. Obama voted to extend State CHIP coverage to a greater swath of the working poor and promises more for the near future. But his real plan is a work in progress.

Let us talk about Real Politics: The Ted Kennedy Act, when it is finally passed, should have an improved Medicare for all option to let the insurance companies have their oft-stated desire for a competitive system. Let them compete with a system which is 20 times as efficient in its administrative expenses (even more so with the reduction in means testing and related investigation) and does not have the added burden of supplying 13-35% profits insurance companies and Big Pharma's owners require to feel whole. Any suggestion that the insurance industry has any high moral ground left should consider AIG and other major insurance companies who speculated up to their necks in high risk, bad mortgage backed junk bonds.

So where do you suppose all those premium hikes of the past decade have been going? What about the word insurance don't they understand? Health insurance is a legal form of gambling in which we bet our lives. Time to end the crap shoot and go for the most efficient and effective health care delivery system available.

In 1965 the then ultra-rightwing AMA hired Ronald Reagan as their talking head to foist two persistent lies about Medicare and Medicaid. First, that they deny us choice of doctors and other health care professions. Secondly, the government would take control over treatment modalities. And then came the HMO's and the private insurance industry proceeded to do just that and that. And Republicans (McCain/Palin especially) still foist these lies about who would control who does what to your mind and body when health care is even partially government funded. Does anyone want an industry that bribes it's hand picked medical hacks to deny necessary treatment and puts profits over human life?

Just in case there is anyone still that gulible, let's promote the Medicare for all option to give the greed players a fighting chance. Some doctors can still specialize in diseases of the rich. Some people may still want 5 Star hospital accomodations and futile heroic medicial endgames. Maybe some cry for fully covered cryonics. Let the insurance companies sell the spendies whatever snake oil they want. Ending empoloyer based medical coverage is crucial to our economic recovery. We simply cannot compete with the 25 out of 26 industrialized nations of the world that all have universal health care in one form or another.

Our task is to design a system that suits our nation's needs. As a recovering personal injury attorney who has sued doctors (but only when other doctors asked me to and then for intentional torts), let me confess that I do not believe health care professionals should practice medicine with a gun to their head. Defensive medicine and most medical malpractice litigations are too burdensome and, in the final analysis unnecessary in a just and thoughtful universal health care system. Why isn't anyone talking about ending medical malpractice based on mere negligence as part of a universal system? Most compensatory damages would be available by health care and the rest could be conducted by a judicial system based compesation program. We could still sue over intentional torts (eg the drunk surgeon) or gross negligence (oops, wrong leg) outrageous circumstances. Protection from suit over all but egregious situations can be a remarkable incentive for health care professionals to sign on to our plan.

And yes, I believe post-graduate level health care professionals should be able to work for up to deep six figure incomes. Finding a hybrid market mechanism for insuring high incomes for those who truly deliver healing arts can also be part of the attraction to a universal health care system that delivers the rewards to the real front line troops.

The insurance industry is already coopting Archimedes Movement principals to smokescreen their continuous syphon of health care dollars to matters that do not deliver healing. In terms of stress and detraction from leisure and healthier, but more expensive diets and life style options, spending 20% of our GNP and household incomes on health care is itself a health care issue. The beauty of the Archimedes Movement is that focus on scientific research and data collection. A Medicare for all option gives the best possible outcome in that it is a non-coercive competition between the so-called free enterprise model and a commonweal concept the data can speak for itself.

John: Keep pushing for more federal funds for health care and the necessary reforms. In the long run, we need to take care of ourselves. Good food and exercise helps. Reduction of personal stress is even better. We need to create intentional communities of sufficient size and profitability (worker cooperatives) such that we can afford our own clinic, staffed with a nurse practioner and some assistants. http://masallp.wetpaint.com/page/HEARTLAND+RENAISSANCE