Reply #42: No, let's leave that up to a corporate bureaucracy instead. [View All]

Nobody's talking about "lurching" into anything (interesting choice of words). It can be done carefully and thoughtfully.

Given the choice between a program that has to answer to the taxpayers and a for profit company that only has to answer to investors, I'll take the first choice. You keep throwing out only one side of the story. You can't make intelligent decisions without examining the alternatives. All you want to look at is the horrid government bureaucracy straw-man that you keep throwing out while ignoring the corporate bureaucracy nightmare that we're currently living with. (Oh, I forgot. We have a wonderful system, as proven by your one experience.) Why do you insist on believing that a government program will deny people pain treatment but that for profit corporations would never do that?

You may not have read about it, but people have died due to the current system, even some people with insurance!

What about Tracy Pierce? He died when his insurance company refused to pay for the cancer treatments his doctor prescribed. http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/health/13690306/detail.html?rss=kc1&psp=news

What about Michelle Keyes, the 18 month old girl who died when her insurance company insisted that her mother take her to a different, further away, hospital? With single-payer you can always go to the nearest emergency room.

I'm happy that you had a good experience with your one-time need. Many, many people have not had such good experiences and, in my humble opinion, those good experiences will occur less and less often as our current system continues to become less and less efficient and more and more costly. Don't be fooled by your one experience. Don't be fooled by your "private is always better" indoctrination. Look at the bigger picture.