Health Care

The Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune never ceases to disappoint. Here's their latest attempt at delaying universal healthcare -- complete with warmed-over talking points circa 1993. Nothing learned, nothing remembered.

The column goes everywhere from denying that this is an urgent problem to warning that they're going to take away your private insurance.

Here's my email to them:

It's great to see Gov. Dean gearing up to make sure we get a 'Public Option' in the much anticipated Obama Health Care plan.

Anything less and what we'll be dealing with isn't a health care plan but yet another expensive taxpayer-funded bail-out -- this time of the insurance companies and big pharma.

From Ezra Klein:

The budget -- and I was cautioned that the wording "is changing hourly" -- will direct Congress to "aim for universality." That is a bolder goal than simple affordability, which can be achieved, at least in theory, through subsidies. Universality means everyone has coverage, not just the ability to access it. And that requires a mechanism to ensure that they have it.

Warm news on an otherwise chilly day from Steve Benen:

It's way too early to know who might replace Daschle at HHS, but I've received quite a few emails about Howard Dean's availability.

I hope every adult in this country points their kids to Senator Kennedy as one of the most positive examples we have of one man's commitment to the public good.

Forget all the cheap cynicism you hear all over the place -- it's being mouthed by a bunch of blockheads. This guy, Senator Kennedy, has come back practically from his deathbed to make sure everyone in this country has access to health care.

He's an example for us all.