[furburger]

some points:

- healthcare is not a business. get over it. the law says you cannot decline emergency care. there is no business model here, any more than there is in running the navy. its a cost.

- you care about public health. meaning, you care if other people are healthy. do you go to the mall or restaurants? if you do, you care if the person next to you has TB. infectous diseases doesn't care about your fully-paid premiums...it matters if other people are also healthy. this once again goes to the fact that healthcare is not a business.

- single payer is the only model that works. or would you prefer to spend another century experimenting with craptastic half-baked business/public hybrids? all health insurance companies must go. the government itself chooses single payer when it needs to run large healthcare plans. the VA, military, federal govt...they all go through single-payer.

- healthcare will be rationed. deal with it. water is rationed. the carpool lane is rationed. bandwidth is rationed. why would healthcare not be rationed?

[david927]

Thanks for banging the drum on this! You're absolutely right. I'm an American who has lived in Germany, Switzerland and now the Czech Republic, and I'm astonished how much better healthcare is over here.

We need to keep banging the drum. America deserves better than this.

[anamax]

> water is rationed. ... bandwidth is rationed.

Nope.

I'm pretty sure that I can buy as much water as I want and I know that I can buy as much bandwidth as I want.

[LogicHoleFlaw]

I can buy as much water as I want

Try saying that in... Colorado and see how far you get before you get your lights punched out.

Water rights and rationing are serious business.

[anamax]

> Try saying that in... Colorado and see how far you get before you get your lights punched out.

I said "buy". Even Coloradans have mastered the fine art of saying "no thanks" when someone offers to buy something for a price that they don't like. And, when the price is acceptable, they sell.

Yes, Water rights are for sale in Colorado.

And, most people don't live in Colorado (or the Mojave).

[CalmQuiet]

On points 2 & 3: True.

But more and more of the country (and world) are having the same issues that Colorado (or the Mojave) have.

[anamax]

I didn't mention that the fight is over cheap water.

The Mojave isn't that far from an absurdly large source of expensive water.