All Life Is Problem Solving

As everyone now knows, a reassessment of America’s strategy in the Afghan War is now underway. Last Sunday, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, in the WaPo, conveniently summarized the options under consideration. There are five. First, is General Stanley McChrystal’s proposal for a major expansion of counterinsurgency and nation-building efforts, including the addition of 40,000 more troops, extensive […]

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In the last couple of days, my thoughts have turned to the question of how much Medicare for All legislation could save compared to the present non-system of health insurance. One estimate of the savings we often see in articles on Medicare for All is $350-400 billion annually. This a substantial amount and over 10 […]

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On September 19, Katherine Q. Seelye, a New York Times “reporter” provided one of the most biased “hit pieces” I’ve seen yet on Medicare for All. The piece is called “Medicare for All? ‘Crazy,’ ‘Socialized’ and Unlikely,” implying that Seelye thinks it’s all three. But what does she say to support her implied characterization. Well, […]

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On September 19, Ezra Klein favored us with an analysis on health care reform in the WaPo. Coming off the results of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2009 Employer Benefits Survey, Ezra makes the following points: ”The truth is we all pay, and much more than we recognize, for health care. . . .” ” . […]

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There’s a Medicare for All sub-community at Firedog Lake. I’m not sure how many bloggers and commenters are in it, but I think it includes at least:

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It’s popular to appeal to the idea of free choice when defending one’s position on health insurance reform. President Obama says that he wants to give people the freedom to choose a public option or some other form of affordable insurance in addition to the insurance choices available now. The insurance companies talk about the […]

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The people of America have an important business decision to make. Right now, we’re paying roughly $2.4 Trillion per year for medical products and services. It is said that we could save roughly $450 – $600 billion of that per year if we eliminated the private for profit health insurance system and replaced it with […]

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Two nights ago (September 14), Rachel Maddow, on MSNBC, during coverage of the DC tea baggers demonstration against health insurance reform, played a satirical clip called “Billionaires for Wealthcare,” in an attempt to give the alternative point of view to the demonstration. After commenting on it, she brought in Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for […]

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Two nights ago (September 14), Rachel Maddow, on MSNBC, during coverage of the DC tea baggers demonstration against health insurance reform, played a satirical clip called “Billionaires for Wealthcare,” in an attempt to give the alternative point of view to the demonstration. Just after the clip she made the point that Billionaires for Wealthcare had […]

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I think Republicans and Blue Dogs understand the power of “no.” But I’m afraid the progressives in Congress don’t understand it, and that’s why they’re losing the fight for health insurance reform, have sustained partial defeats on the stimulus package, and credit card reform bills, and are moving toward a partial defeat on the cap-and-trade […]

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