Americans do want health care REFORM, not DEFORM.

Congress should address tort reform, opening up interstate competition among insurers, policing the billions of dollars stolen through fraud under Medicaid and Medicare, simplifying paperwork needed to file claims and cutting off all but emergency care for illegal aliens.

What we don't want or need is socialistic federal control, massive deficit spending, reduction in benefits to those who paid for Medicare insurance through their working lives, penalties upon those who choose not to purchase insurance, increased cost of insurance for both employers and employees, rationing and delays in legitimate treatments, higher income taxes or addition of thousands of additional bureaucrats to the federal payroll in order to intercede between us and our physicians.

Both the House and Senate seem focused on legislation to undermine our health care, not on taking logical steps to improve it or reduce its cost.

I am in favor of health care reform. This isn't that. It is too intrusive, too coercive, too bureaucratic, too costly, too confining, too protective of Big Pharma and insurance, too confusing, too contradictory, and too full of gimmicks.
The bill does very little to address cost containment, yet introduces new, non-value-added costs at every turn. If they can really contain costs, let them prove it by doing so in a demonstration project involving all Federal, Congressional, and Postal employees and retirees. If they can DEMONSTRATE 5 years of savings with no deterioration in outcomes, I might buy. 'Til then, no sale.

Thats what everyone I know agrees with. This bill has nothing to do with our better interests, it has all to do with a Government power grab over our lives.

Thank you so much for your words. It is a horrible mistake for people to believe in what this administration is doing to our country. Many have not lived as long as I, and they do not know what a government like this can do to you. I only hope the voters for this president will wake up to the mistake they made before we are turned into a socialist nation by government because I feel 100% that they will NOT LIKE IT!

How can you recite a Rassmussen poll when noone knows exactly what the house Bill and senate bill will contain? I can ask 2 diffent people omn the street what those bill contains and neither would know.

such as a BRIBE of $300,000,000 to Louisiana.

What states have not enacted tort reform? in Florida pain and suffering is limited to 400.00 period. Nobody is for cutting Medicare it's greatly sucessful. If you dont believe me just ask any senor to drop there Mdeicare and by into a private plan for a $100.00 premium payment and a 100.00 deductable. What most people would agree is that healthcare insurance is too expensive and it consumes a a sizable portion of any family's income. If a family is spending in excess of 600.00 month for premiums there not buying TV's, cars, food ect. It kills the economy. The scare tactic to use the term " Socialized Medice " is being disengenuous. We have never had socialized medicine in this country so the outrageous cost of healthcare insurance today is not because of socialized medicine.

so is the president and congress lying in saying that Medicare cuts will help pay for their initiative? That is the only explanation for your contention that "nobody is for cutting Medicare". As to 'wildly successful', I suspect the hospitals that routinely write off 60% or more of a Medicare patient's bill would disagree. Then again, that cost is passed on to the private pay people, so if the system is not working very well, the reason comes back to govt.

Govt is the key reason your hypothetical family pays what it pays. Govt limits the families choices not just to buying within a single state, but to the companies that are part of the cartel operating in a state. Govt dictates what coverages must be offered, so the young people who would buy a low-premium catastrophic policy don't because it's not available. Govt dictates what payouts will be for Medicare / Medicaid patients, and commercial carriers take their cues from that.

Health care in and of itself is a provider of good jobs. Nurses have been in demand for decades and command good salaries. PAs have come into vogue as another well-paying position. Add to that admin and clerical staff, billing, anyone working for insurance companies, anyone working for pharmaceuticals, and health care is its own economy. Putting the govt in charge will not help, becuase putting the govt in charge of any type of business never helps. The record on that is long and unpleasant.

Of course, it will be socialized medicine. What else can it be when govt dictates the payment structure, the availability of services, mandates that people buy it or face severe penalty (unlike any other service or product on the market). What else can it be when Congress is asking 'how to pay for it'. Congress does not ask how to pay for anything other than govt-run enterprises which, again, have been money-losers each and every one.

you are purposely mis-stating the argument to paint the insurance companies as the source of the problem; good thing you're not relying on anyone's talking points to advance your argument.

Your insurance company would face some regulation, like any private business does, and it would face market competition. Stiff a few customers and the result will be...no customers. That is what happens when companies renege on their obligations or don't provide an adequate level of service. It happens in every industry.

Somehow insurance commissioners manage to keep auto and homeowners companies from running amok. Do you really think State Farm would be able to get away with ignoring claims? Of course, not. What govt does re: health coverage is artificially stifle competition by, even worse, creating intra-state monopolies.

When PA Gov Ed Rendell goes on tv and says that, in parts of his state, a single company has 75% of the market, does that sound like normal competition to you? More likely, it's the result of a company spending a lot of money on state lawmakers and jimmying things to its advantage.

Your first point is half right - they don't like the idea of being FORCED through the police power of govt to buy anything, and there is not a single document on record that justifies Washington's belief that it can do so. Govt simply does not have the authority to compel you to buy any product or service.