Former Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean argued Wednesday that the health care overhaul bill taking shape in the Senate further empowers private insurers at the expense of consumer choice.”You will be forced to buy insurance. If you don’t, you’ll pay a fine,” said Dean, a physician. “It’s an insurance company bailout.” Interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” he said the bill has some good provisions, “but there has to be a line beyond which you think the bill is bad for the country.”"This is an insurance company’s dream,” the former Democratic presidential candidate said. “This is the Washington scramble, and it’s a shame.”
via Dean urges defeat of emerging health care bill – Yahoo! News.
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It would seem that Dean is undervaluing many, many pages of the health reform bill if he is willing to scrap it and start again based on an all or nothing approach because he might get nothing. There are many valuable changes proposed by the bill so it is very important to understand whether a public option is possible when the Democrats are themselves so divided on what some of the key aspects of the bill should be. If is not possible, then Dean needs to accept that negotiations are rarely able to get everything that a person wants.
With a rate of 15.3% of Americans still without insurance that is a very solid signifier that the system has not improved in 15 years. It is also very likely the demographic that needs the most assistance, but time and again is gravely overlooked.
Our nation needs a change but many are afraid, be it personal investment at stake or simply fear of something different, to look at possibilities outside of what they already know works “just well enough.” Just well enough however, isn't good enough for everyone. Not at a time when we are slipping down the world charts. There was an article I found written by several doctors and medical professionals and in the article there was a statistic that the World Health Organization has ranked the US as the 37th best country in health care, http://www.ourblook.com/component/option,com_se… this is very unacceptable considering at this point in time.