Health care needs and policies...

President Obama was in Montana and Colorado this weekend, answering questions about health care reform. Here are some of my comments pertaining to questions and answers...

To the question about private insurance companies competing with the public option, which means a governmental program:

1). There are 46 million Americans who don't currently have health care insurance, many who can't afford it, so they are not adding to the revenues of the insurance companies anyway. If they are allowed into a public program, then they will finally get coverage. About 14,000 people lose their health care insurance each day. I suspect much of that is because of job loss. So, the insurance companies are already losing customers. Are they losing profits? I don't hear of insurance companies going broke because of the loss or absence of customers.

2). The insurance companies don't just cover health care. They cover the insurance for car ownership, floods, and other areas including life insurance. My state forces me to find and pay for car insurance, though my driving record has been excellent for decades. I pay into the insurance pool for all those reckless teenagers and accident-prone jerks using cell phones while they drive. Talk about a "socialist" system. Why am I forced to get insurance for my car when I don't abuse its use or endanger others? Do any of those Republicans who are against the public option in health care complain about mandatory car insurance? And do you think there's a rat's whisker of difference in coverage costs within the so-called marketplace of insurance companies? If there is, I haven't discovered it. The insurance companies should have never been part of the health care system in the first place.

Why should Obama and Democrats like Senator McCaskill support a public option and make sure it's in the final plan?

Here's the deal. I voted for Obama and McCaskill in 2008. Obama's race wasn't close, but he certainly benefited by having a large amount of support from progressives (that means liberals). McCaskill's race went into the early hours of the next morning. That's how close it was. A nearly 50/50 race. I would prefer a single-payer system, like other great industrial democracies. At the very least, I expect a public option to be available in the health care plan. See the relationship. I voted for Obama; I want a public option. On the other hand, there are Republicans generally who don't want a public option and, for the most part, they didn't vote for Obama. So, who should Obama and McCaskill listen to? If Obama and the Democrats satisfy the conservatives, by caving on the public option, I hope they have calculated how many of those people who never voted for them before are suddenly going to vote for them in 2012 to replace the absent votes from progressives who are disgusted.

I voted for a Democratic president and Democratic senators and representatives. And they all won. I had to put up with Republican policies for the last eight years. Republicans got their two wars, their water-boarding, and their tax cuts for the rich. I sure as heck am not going to put up with more Republican policies from a Democratic-controlled government. There is a Democratic majority in Congress. So, I expect to see Democratic policies, not Republican or watered-down bipartisan policies. If they can't deliver, having the current Democratic majorities, then they probably will never deliver. They need to deliver it and, in so doing, make good on the promises for those of us who voted for them. We expect them to deliver Democratic policies. It shouldn't be all that difficult, as they would be keeping their voting constituency happy.