So we have to have a way to get everyone insured, yet the government can’t force them to pay out of pocket. We (our government of the people) can’t fine or tax people for failing to acquire insurance, yet we’d all save money if everyone were insured.

So we need to:
Get everybody covered
Not make people pay for it directly

Any ideas, Canada? France, you got anything on this?

@2 Yes, though that's the system I'd prefer.I think it would be great if scotus did stike it down, if that would lead to the next step of opening medicare to everyone.

@2 & @3 if that happened Obama would be the sneakiest genius ever in American politics.

The problem of course is that the health care plan as is won't fix our health care system. We need single payer. The Romney/ Obama plan is already costing jobs, and has allowed health insurance companies to gouge customers.

While the plan will insure 30 million more people, and that's awesome, it will still leave many millions uninsured and the cost of insurance will remain high with decreased benefits. Anyone who has been buying insurance over the last 20 years will attest to how rates have skyrockets while benefits have dwindled. Obama's plan won't fix that trend.

The "exchange" is the crux of the issue. It's supposed to create competition among insurance plans. But there is a panel who decides what insurance companies and what plans get to be in the exchange. And guess who is on the panel, appointed by the Dems.....the large insurance companies. And they get to keep out of the exchange any plans they don't like, for instance plans like Qliance.

Obama and the Dems in Washington are allowing the health insurance companies to make massive profits from what will be a mandated health insurance system. It's a sham. The only thing worse is the Republican non-plan.

Even the health insurance companies are laying the groundwork for higher rates under the plan...Brian Berg, a member of the Life and Health Advisory for the Insurance Commissioner's Office and co-vice president and secretary of Floyd Watkins & Associates, a Vancouver insurance firm, ..."From a premium standpoint and from a risk standpoint, it's going to do nothing but drive up rates." (http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index…)

It's fine to slam McKenna on his bullshit. He'll make a horrible governor for many reasons. But where's your criticism of the Dems who have sold us and our health out to insurance companies?

We could fix this mess by demanding a single payer option be put into the health insurance exchange, as Vermont is doing. But we have no leadership in this state that will push for this, even with a Dem controlled government.

@4 they (the Stranger and Goldy at HA before he came here) spent their time criticizing the Dems, but that work is done now. The Dems are now in court defending what their jellyfish backbones hath wrought. McKenna's bullshit is fresh and ever-growing, and hence it gets the freshest light shone on it.

oops, I mean @5. Sorry!

The republicans secretly love this plan. Shit, they're the ones who came up with the whole thing in the first place. It's not the health care act they hate, it's Obama and the democrats they hate, and they'll hate everything he does. Everything.

It's been said before, if Obama cured cancer, the republicans would still hate him and find some way to criticize the cure.

@ 8

It's been said before, if Obama cured cancer, the republicans would still hate him and find some way to criticize the cure.

I can SO see this. They'd blame him for taking away doctors' jobs and pharma profits.

Right now, you can purchase an Individual plan in Washington State for as low as $120 a month.

For those 20/30-somethings working jobs without insurance, how many of you are willingly spending that amount to get health care insurance...which you will soon be forced to do under Obamacare?

@8,

They'd claim that cancer is great. How dare Obama cure it?

"Obamacare" is an incremental improvement over what we have now, and I remain convinced that it's about as good as Obama could have done. If he had pushed for a single payer system back in 2008 there's no chance in hell he could have passed it.

If people are right and the current incremental health reform doesn't help much, then we can push for a single payer system, but I actually kind of like some of the improvements in Obamacare, so I'd rather take what I can get for now. I don't think passing the current health reform hurts our chances for a future single payer system, so why not pass it?

One thing that I have yet to see mentioned is how much shrieking we are likely to hear when the mandate takes hold (if it stands). The thing Americans love more than anything else is a free lunch and when those who are accustomed to gambling sans insurance (mostly 'I'll never get sick' healthy young people) are forced to start paying something for health insurance all hell is likely to break loose.

"Conservatives are all for "personal responsibility" and everything, so at what point if you show up at an emergency room with a serious injury or illness do we just allow you to die?"

How about now? http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime…

@8 and @10: Yes, if Obama cured cancer, the Rs would be talking about how the *shareholders* of pharma companies are being hurt...

@12
"Right now, you can purchase an Individual plan in Washington State for as low as $120 a month."

Do you have a link for that? I'm wondering what is covered and what the limits are.

My opinion is that the concept of "insurance" for medical coverage is flawed at the core. It is NOT like car insurance. But this is still a step (however flawed) in the correct direction.

Seriously, $120? That must be crappy insurance, otherwise why am I paying $440/mo for COBRA?

@12 - only if they don't find something "alarming" in your background. I once had an abnormal Pap smear (just one) and couldn't get coverage from any company that offered individual plans after that, even though all of the subsequent ones had been completely normal and my doctor wrote a letter for me attesting to the fact that a different lab was used that year for lab procedures. My only choice was COBRA at $600 month until that expired, then I joined the ranks of the uninsured. I would have welcomed being forced to pay $120-$140 month for Obamacare if it meant they couldn't turn me down