Americans wants better health care not a bigger government...give a quality not a quantity.

Please find your spine Mr. President. We're at war both in and out of the country.
Leave "nice" for home and family!

I see nothing in the proposals right now, if they cut out the public option, that will lower costs and not end up bankrupting the country. With so many people out of work, we are already on a road to serious problems and what Obama is so determined to do without a single payer or public option will just make it worse. Without a public option they would have to put on strict price controls, roll them back to a reasonable profit level.

Franken talked about how in Minnesota with a requirement that insurance be non-profit, their expenses run 10%. Medicare's are like 5% or something like that. Regular insurance wanted some guarantees that they'd have 31% for their overhead. That's a ticket for their increased profits, and they already had high ones.

Obama seems to only want something to make himself look like he won. You can 'win' and lose. This idea that compromise is the ticket on everything has gotten us a lot of half-baked programs and contributed to us being where we are today. I hope I am wrong but it looks to me like this will be another.

With nearly 30% unemployment in young males if we add a requirement to buy insurance but they have no money, it will all be government premiums. It's a mess and this has been a disillusioning summer.

I still hope for the best but Americans need to really speak out if they want a public option because it won't happen any other way.

When Obama got elected, I said the work had just begun. Americans not paying enough attention, trusting somebody else, or demanding the right thing be done is part of what got us where we are today in a lot of areas.

I heard NPR commentator TR Reid last night at Seattle Town Hall. His latest book is The Healing of America. He studies therein what every other advanced country in the world does about health care. Most of them -- Germany, France, Switzerland -- have private insurance companies, but they are non-profits; nowhere but here in the USA is it legal for them to be profit-making.
Reid says the big question is, Why does everybody else provide universal care, and why don't we? When we believe everyone deserves access to healthcare, he says, we'll design a system to accommodate that value.
Let it be now.

Bill Moyers' programs have been excellent in showcasing the health care situation.

I've been watching the local media this summer to read what sort of communiques are being featured. We had a crazy town meeting our current Rep. wouldn't attend for debate because "Didn't I see who was on the podium -- it's a set up." an aide in his local office told me when I called. Then, at the meeting we had a crazy 20 yr old birther type who disrupted the meeting, thus briefly complicating sane issue discussion.

After agreeing to participate in our local Reps. phone conference town meetings and never being called upon, I declined to sit through an hour of his most recent health care one. Instead I took the option of phoning his office and leaving a message for him. I'm sick of being subjected to having to listen primarily to those who seem only to support his position. I hardly think those chosen to be allowed to speak to him possess opposing views, so I decided I was tired of this brain washing effort for any of us who might have different views or ask him hard questions. As might be expected his subsequent announcement to news media stated his constituents were opposed to the health care proposals based on his phone conference. There was no acknowledgment that any of his constituents disagreed.

I've been pleased our local bi-weekly paper has had some really excellent articles and letters written by local residents presenting the facts. Both sides had their say, but I must note the Rep. Chairman's article was pathetically inaccurate so could easily be refuted.

I've felt frustrated this whole summer with the manner in which this most important issue has been mishandled by those purporting most to support it, including our President. You've certainly pegged all the issues that have been the source of my irritation. I surely do hope this speech tonight has some clout.

I'm disgusted that health insurance companies are still being given free reign. I still remember early this year when they pledged to be able to save money and I gagged at their words. If those so-called savings were so easy, why hadn't they instituted them before? We'll have no real meaningful reduction in health care costs until health insurance ceases to be administered on a for profit basis.

You are absolutely correct about the cuts that will be attempted on Medicare. As a health professional I've been seeing that in incremental ways for some years, only it will be significantly increased just as you describe.

This is the part of your post that needs to be driven home again and again:

With a single-payer system, every one of the 300 million-odd Americans would pay, enlarging the risk pool. This is why Medicare is in financial trouble; it covers only old people who have more health care needs than younger people. When everyone is covered, the 80/20 rule goes into effect – 20 percent of the people use 80 percent of the system - so the system is not strained as with Medicare.

As a nation, are we really that bad at math that we can't be convinced of this?

Great post about barak obama.But President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a single-payer system off the table from day one.