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Lieberman Won't Vote for Health Bill

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acwgusa12/14/2009 10:22:19 am PST

re: #89 Jaerik

I’m extremely ambivalent about the health care reform bills moving through Congress. I’m torn between my standard libertarian love for the private sector, and my first-hand comparisons between life in the US and a single-payer country (Japan).

That having been said, you don’t have to be on the right or the left to think this guy is a weasel. This is the second time on this subject he has been invited to the negotiation room on good faith, gotten his caucus to back off the most tempting parts of their agenda, come out of the room claiming victory and shaking hands all around, and then done a 180 and threatened to filibuster. This time, he isn’t even waiting for the CBO to score the damn thing.

If you’re against health care reform, embrace this guy at your peril. He’s a snake. The only thing he’s thinking about is media exposure for himself, the millions he’s gotten from insurance companies, and his ex-insurance lobbyist wife.

I’m not ambivalent. I’ve seen what happens when government gets involved in insurance provision. The only way I would accept single payor in this county is if the government paid the private health care providers directly, and stayed the hell out otherwise except for cases of safety.

Our system is fragmented between Medicare, Medicaid, VA, and myriad private insurance providers. Simplest solution? Stop the fragmentation, dump government insurance and pay actual full costs to private providers. Quality care is expensive, and good quality care is astronomical.