Health Care Revisited
Jenny (jenelou(at)hotmail(dot)com also commented on health care as follows:

"The biggest problem with health care in our country, as I see it, is the fact that too many people are working the middle ground and getting rich. I would rather pay more in taxes and guarantee a solid patient to doctor relationship, than pay higher health care costs to pay lobbyists, HMO bureaucrats and ad agencies. I resent the fact that the cost of veterans' prescriptions have gone up, while our TV's are flooded with commercials touting every drug known. It's a sad state when patients tell their physicians what drugs they want to use, based on slick media campaigns. The only purpose served is increased profit for drug company shareholders. We need to de-politicize and de-commercialize health care. Health care should be a fundamental right, not an option. If it takes an increase in taxes, so be it. Most of the democratic hopefuls have the right idea."

How much in new taxes would we be talking about? Most of the Democratic candidates don't explicitly advocate new taxes in any of their health care plans. Most of the electorate thinks they are taxed enough. Many say that the costs would go down as health care is depoliticized, but no one really knows. One place where I differ with the Democrats is how much their plans are ultimately going to cost. Most want to repeal the Bush tax plan and "give" it back to us in other ways.

Canada is most often named when folks talk about a single-payer system. Common Dreams touts the advantages of Canadian health care, but quotes from The New York Times, "few Canadians would recommend their system as a model for export." There are problems with containing costs, wait times for appointments and test results as well as others.

I do agree however that since a profit can not be made without a patent, beneficial medicines may fall through the cracks. This is one place where the government can give grants as they do for other explorations.