You know the only thing worse than killing the entire law on account of the individual mandate, Eli? That would be killing just the individual mandate and then seeing the rest of the law slowly, inexorably collapse in on itself on account of healthy people choosing to go without health insurance up until the point when they're no longer healthy.

Now, when I say this, I'm probably overstating the significance of the individual mandate, considering how meager it is. But so many of the necessary reforms in this legislation were watered down to the point of being minor. I'm thinking of the tax on "Cadillac" health plans. It's not so much like the Affordable Care Act was health reform; it was more about sowing the seeds of health reform.

Still, seeds are all we've got now, and it's easier to keep a seed from taking root now than to try to uproot real reform later.

Well, if he is going to run for governor, next election cycle, this may gain him Tea Party votes but it won't win him any western WA moderates.

Shorter GOP: "If poor people have to die in order for us to have more cash in our pockets, then so be it."

Oddly enough, I understand people's resentment to being made to buy health insurance. Health insurance isn't like car insurance - which car owners must similarly purchase - because one doesn't have to buy a car. That's the market choice even though IMHO mandating car insurance removes the free market aspect from that as well.

I don't know what the final figure will be - whether it'll be $50 a month or $200 a month (BC's health plan runs, I believe, around $15-$30 a month depending on family size), but when I was 23 and rather poor and struggling (and healthy), I would have resented the fuck out of a high insurance premium forced on me.

But on further thought, how is this any more intrusive than the income tax? Back when I was 23, the tax rate for single people in my $4/hr. tax bracket was about 25-28%. Today, adjusted for inflation, that's about $16/hr. which is in the 15% bracket.

There's much lacking in this health care bill, but medical care in this country has becoming a sad, sad joke wherein only the wealthy and fully insured get the care they really and truly need (do you think you get the same quality of care as, say, Bill Gates?). The bill is a good starting point (everyone has to take that first step) and deserves support. It really is the patriotic thing to do if you care about the future of this country.

@5: MSP payments in BC range from $60 for one person to $121 for a family of three or more. There is a sliding scale of subsidies for low incomes; those who make $22,000 or less pay nothing and the full rates kick in at $33,000.

Meanwhile, Canada spends less to achieve health care outcomes as good or better than the US. Total health care spending per capita in the US is almost twice Canada's - $7285 vs. $3867 in 2007; even public spending is higher in the US - $3317 vs. $2719 per capita.

Seems like the answer to any inconvenient question in Washington state politics is "we don’t believe that’s going to be the outcome". Guess you don't have to vote Republican to get faith based government.

@4 Precisely. Now why don't the progressive politicians we elect put it those terms instead of all this mushy happy talk?

@5 When people who don't have health insurance are severely injured or become extremely ill, they can't work. If they can't work, then they can't pay their hospital bills. If they can't pay their bills, government must step in and reimburse the hospitals, otherwise the hospitals shut down and you have no where to go when you have an accident or get ill. Either they pay for insurance or our taxes pay for their care.

I would so, so happily pay $121/month for health care if it meant my family and everyone else could actually GET good health care regardless of personal circumstance! As it is I pay over $700/month for a crappy plan that I can be kicked out of at a bureaucrat's whim for no reason at all. It's the most angry-making aspect of my budget every month.