On Jan 29, 2007, at 1:29 PM, Jim Straub wrote:
> Another example of us foolishly supporting the expansion of
> healthcare coverage under the existing system while it still
> exists, as opposed to rallying the masses behind far better health
> care plans proposed by the spartacist league, kropotkin, left
> business observer and jim straub.... ie international workers
> revolution for socialism!
>
Tee-hee, Jim, but really - what are the politics of grafting yet another stupid structure on top of the stupid structure that is our health care financing system? The hodge-podge of conflicting and/or overlapping systems is a major part of the problem. The Mass and Calif plans *require* the uninsured, under the threat of substantial financial penalities, to buy their own health insurance. If that isn't the craziest fucking thing I've heard in a long time, I don't know what is: they don't have the money, remember? A union that cared about the working class as a whole would be pressing for a universal system - that's hardly pie in the sky, since variations on that theme work all over the world. Except here in the land of the free.
Doug