Health care.

It's obvious to all Americans... well, those over 30... that we have a health care crisis. Compared to other industrialized nations our health care system is mediocre while being by far the most expensive in the world, and tens of millions of Americans have no health insurance at all. Every year thousands of Americans die because their health insurance ran out, their condition wasn't covered, or they just didn't have insurance. Do health insurance companies care? On the contrary, they look for policy nits to deny coverage whenever possible.

Compare that mess to, say, France. If you go to Paris tomorrow on vacation and have a health issue, you don't need to figure out whether Kaiser will pay anything - just go to a doctor and they'll take care of you for free. Even though you aren't a citizen. Gosh, isn't that civilized?

Unless you've been comatose for three years (no insurance?), you know that the Obama administration is trying to improve our health care situation. The first anniversary of the enactment of the health care reform bill was just a few days ago.

YAY!

It is a terribly flawed bill, but it's a start. It's the first meaningful health care legislation in over 60 years. So why are Republicans groaning and moaning and pissing all over themselves to get it repealed? Why, because it was signed into law by a Democratic president.

The GOP and some lily-livered Democrats defeated the single payer option, aka Medicare for all, and are now in a tizzy over the individual mandate, which says that everyone must purchase insurance. Who proposed an individual mandate first, before Obama took office? Why, Republicans! But now they say that Big Government should not force citizens to spend "their" money (back to that sometime) on anything. Instead, they suggest health savings accounts. They rejected the single payer option, which is by far the best and least expensive solution, because it would be paid for by higher taxes. And they, of course, vigorously support insurance companies.

The most hypocritical thing about all of that is that insurance basically means putting away small amounts of money now to pay for large expenses in the future. Health saving accounts? The same. The single payer option? The same. So it comes down to the GOP backing health insurance companies, who give them millions of dollars in "campaign contributions" (bribes).

Almost everyone is going to face high medical expenses in their lifetime. That's why the single payer option is by far the best deal. Twenty-somethings might not want to pay higher taxes now to support it, but really they're putting away money for their future needs. If we all were paying a relatively small amount in taxes, much less than health insurance, and we didn't have to worry about getting medical care, and if we could legitimately think of ourselves as a compassionate country, wouldn't that be nice?