Exactly
What E.D. Kain said. I don’t think I’ve seen a blog post on healthcare reform that I agree with more.
I am increasingly of the opinion that the president made a major mistake when he came out swinging for the public option. The core problem for the insured and uninsured alike in this country is that quality health care is increasingly unaffordable. Universal coverage is important, but more for its portability than for the myth of efficiency that surrounds it. Obama should have come out for any health care plan that a) rewards innovation and efficiency in the delivery of healthcare services, b) disentangles coverage from employment, and c) provides an affordable subsidy to support the unemployed or otherwise uninsured. He decided to name the means instead of the ends, and that was a serious unforced error.
Ambiance 
Randy said,
August 12, 2009 at 3:03 pm
It also comes close enough to what I usually think to pass as government work ;-)
wj said,
August 12, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I wonder to what extent these errors, though unforced, are a result of having two groups which are increasingly self-segregated. With the result that members of one have no clue what will set off members of the other . . . because they simply never spend any time with each other. Well, maybe they spend a little time getting in each other’s faces, but no time just hanging out and chatting like civilized human beings.
And, as ever, ignorance can get you into trouble that would have been easily avoided with a little more knowledge. It might be worthwhile for any politician to hire someone whose entire job description was to just spend full time listening to the ravings of the other side. Just to provide some input on what nonsense was likely to come down in response to an apparently innocuous suggestion. Not, I hasten to add, I job that I personally would want any part of — I’ve got too many friends already who start raving if the conversation happens to touch a sensitive subject.
amba12 said,
August 12, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Yep, yep, yep.
huxley said,
August 12, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Obama has confirmed what I suspected all along. He is a left-wing ideologue down to his DNA. He can’t help but do what he is doing,
Those who expected something else were simply taken in. And they continue to make excuses for Obama, like Camille Paglia in her latest Salon article.