[DoctorIrokezov]

Congress doing less.

[Adeniinteme]

Who cares what the Republicans think? It's not like they were going to support any health care legislation anyway.

[effenseshoora]

Who cares what the Republicans think? It's not like they were going to support any health care legislation anyway.

sigh

[Numbiydq]

MrFun should change his username to Can't We All Just Get Along. The answer to the question, by the way, is "no."

[DavidShreder]

I don't see how Reid comparing healthcare reform to the civil rights struggle is any more objectionable than gay activists comparing gay marriage to the civil rights struggle.

The similarities between healthcare reform and gay marriage go beyond the rhetorical tropes used by their supporters. Both are unpopular with a majority of Americans and have so far failed to be put into practice because a critical mass of Democratic lawmakers care more about being reelected than actually achieving a stated goal of the Democratic party. And, in both cases, the Republicans are the ones who get blamed for the failure, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

There are genuine analogies and parallels with civil rights for gays and lesbians and civil rights for other minority groups - which include the right of marriage. There have been, and are, black civil rights leaders who support such comparisons.

The comparison with health care and civil rights, in contrast, really is ridiculous.


Why don't you just admit that you hate yourself because you're gay? Admitting a problem is the first step toward facing it.

[Feloascarlelt]

Actually health care reform is very popular among the electorate. It's just that what is being trotted out isn't.

[SHUSIATULSE]

Dude! If we only stick with the status quo for 6 more years all the sickly people will be dead and we won't need to worry about them!

[CULTDIAMONDS]

Best Ezra Klein editorial in a while

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120702947.html

A good editorial... Education is needed. Many people are making knee jerk decisions without the right information.

But as good as the editorial was, that's just one of the issues. We still need to address the real issue... the rising cost of healthcare. One of the biggest "costs" is insurance for doctors. Malpractice premiums are going through the roof. We need real tort reform here. Sure, some doctors should be sued for malpractice, but these days, it seems if anything goes wrong, even something beyond the Doctors actions, it's lawsuit time. Too many malpractice suits, valid or not, are helping to raise the cost of the healthcare.

[BoomBully]

Errr...the whole point of the Klein article was that meaningful price reductions are impossible when people don't see the costs they pay...

Yep.. and that's why more education is needed, just as I said before.

But that doesn't mean that known problems can't be addressed. Malpractice premiums are something that are known, and can be addressed now, without ANY education of the consumer needed.

[Snitiendumurn]

Malpractice premiums are tiny relative to total cost, Ming...

And it's not about education; Klein stops short of the real problem. The real problem is that prices are information AND incentive.

Prices are hidden from consumers currently; this means that they have neither the information NOR the incentive to attempt to economize on their consumption...

[JewJoleSole]

Single payer capped between 60%-90% of total cost?

[BashBeissedat]

I think its a bit more than simply CYA. After all, the doctors aren't doing those extra tests for free... convincing people that it's only CYA is, though, an ingenious ploy by the doctors.