Some very well meaning folks have sent me several links lately after my explosion regarding the health care bill. I have spent the past few days reading them and re-reading the parts of the bill I had trouble with and with the exception of a couple of points which I will cover in a moment it really doesn't look like such a bad thing after all.
It will of course drive private insurers out of business eventually. However I see the good done by this and when eventually we do have a single payer system the numbers actually add up quite nicely for being able to cover everyone at what is paid in insurance currently.
It works like this. Currently people pay for insurance and the insurance companies use that money to administer policies, pay out claims and make a profit. Even though the health insurance business has a lower than average profit margin those profit margins are more than adequate to cover the uninsured IF they were actually used for medical services and not profit.
Of course we would have to give the employees working in the industry preference in hiring for the government run program administering this program but they already know the business so that's actually a benefit as we wouldn't need to train millions of people before they could do their job.
With the profit motive taken away from insurance, doctors could get a fair wage for their work, everyone could have access to the medical treatment they need and we will show those french how it's done.
I want to thank everyone who sent me links and insisted I at least read them. You have opened my eyes and I apologize for being such an obstinate jerk. Thank you, kender