THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN by The Cosmic Messenger

“[According to some experts, the American Healthcare system is on the brink of failure.] We certainly are in a health care crisis, ... If we had set out to design the worst system that we could imagine, we couldn't have imagined one as bad as we have.” ... Marcia Angell

In case you haven't noticed lately America is in CRISIS. The economy needs resuscitating and the foreign perils of the Middle Eastern countries are draining our financial assets. Add to this a nation who neglects the healthcare of its citizens and you have a recipe for insolvency.

So which problem do we address first ?

For the past eight years President Bush has put the interests of noncitizens before our own in a macabre pursuit to impose corporate hegemony upon the rest of the planet for the sake of GREED. The death and destruction he's exacted in pursuit of these policies is unforgivable and should be one of President-elect Obama's top priorities aside from total withdrawal of extraneous military engagements of any kind upon taking office. Reducing the Pentagon's budget is essential if he's sincere about repairing American capitalism and enacting a single-payer health system for all Americans.

Back in mid-December Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) predicted there would be no social insurance reform before 2010 stating "Congress needs to resolve several relatively smaller healthcare issues before it can move on to the big fight." Both Stark and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) claim other healthcare issues such as the reauthorization of the SCHIP program and the implementation of electronic medical records would take priority before remedying the system totally.

I beg to differ with these two career Washington bureaucrats but 46 million uninsured people say they can't wait any longer. They along with the under-insured citizens of our nation are going bankrupt daily because of the chaotic system of for-profit medical care we operate under now. An incremental approach just doesn't address the life threatening issues they face in their lives.

As recently as 2007 I wrote editorials stating the need for universal single-payer healthcare. See my commentary in the archives for September and October of that year. This week the "Newshour" on PBS is exploring the issue as well. To access it online search for PBS and click the NewsHour to review the healthcare segments.

Listen To A Podcast About Health Reform Here

AN INFORMED ELECTORATE IS NECESSARY FOR A SUCCESSFUL DEMOCRACY

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