As long as capital takes precedence over people, we'll never be able to provide equitable healthcare for our citizens. Michael Moore is correct in his assessment, both in his documentary, "Sicko", and this piece from Countdown last evening.

More importantly, until we become a society interested in "prevention" of illness, instead of the "treatment", we'll always be chasing-our-tail trying to make it work and pay for itself.

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Then let's tax everyone- not some small group of people. This is America at it's worst. I want it-but NIMBY.
I want to provide healthcare for kids- but I want the smokers to pay for it.

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As Moore says, what don't our politicians get about the need and the methodology for universal health care. The American people are also to blame in that many of them are so brain dead as to keep buying the "socialized medicine" boogyman of the right wing. It's crap. The fact that the U.S. is the ONLY industrialized nation in the whole frigging world that tells its citizens "pay through the nose or die" is pitiful. Perhaps a diet of politician foie gras or broasted executus boardroomus (particularly for-profit insurance company execs) would make us all healthier. Summary execution for medical practitioners who rip off medicare/medicaid might help a bit too.

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who smokes, I was disappointed that our health care bill failed. We used to have a health care system for children and low income adults, but it is no more. I wonder if the method of paying for health care had been spread evenly, if it would have passed. Oregonians by nature are very against taxes. We still have no sales tax. We have become such a selfish nation. I have mine so do it yourself seems to be the motto. The time may be coming when so many of the truly selfish will lose "theirs" and may have a better sense of what community means. Don't people realize that prevention is so much less expensive that waiting for the emergency room trip as "our" president suggests?

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It's long past the time that we Americans must catch up to the rest of the industrialized world and institute a Universal Health Care system. We spend far more than any other industrialized county yet receive extremely poor care. The statistics are clear - we are in a class with countries like Libya.

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When there is nothing else for the corporatocracy to lose. In other words, we'll be in a Depression and our currency will be worthless. Until then, keep dreaming. They won't have anything to do with this while there's still good money to be made.

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Corporate jets, luxury vacations, but do not tax cigarettes. A cigarette tax is a tax on the poor, who are predominately the purchasers of cigarettes.

Mooreover, Mike is right. A single-payer, universal Medicare for all is the only fair system for delivery of health services anymoore. Dennis Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate who is supporting Conyer's bill for healthcare.

Peace

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1) Restore the long-term capital gains tax back to the ordinary income tax rate
2) Place a luxury tax on all goods over $75,000 (excluding housing)
3) Increase federal income tax rates for those in the highest tax bracket, and add a new one for those making > $1 million at 50%
4) Add a small (0.25 - 0.5%) tax to every stock exchange sale over 10,000 shares
5) Disallow property tax deductions on 2nd homes

I wonder how much money these could pull in? We'll never know.

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My eyebrows raised when Keith mentioned "insurance companies" as part of the bandwagon....This can never be good. I'm also concerned about permanent tax cuts for the rich as being off the table for funding for these types of programs. Cigarette taxes are highly regressive and they cannot be a reliable source of revenue to fund universal health care.....They are a politically easy target though...but they are hardly the solution. Smokers will simply make road trips to low cigarette tax states like KY or NC to buy their fix if their own states raise the taxes too high.

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Jefferson's Guardian got it correct above in a post when he spoke of need for prevention.

While I greatly admire Moore and SICKO I don't think Mike Moore is emphasizing enough on both indivual and institutional prevention

We tax incentives for both . But it is hard to dismantle a $2 trillion dollar disease care industry.

Money freed up with prevention can be targeted to ALL Americans who need treatment.

(Stem Cell research is a red -herring) Don't let it take your eye off the ball of health care for all.

Dr. Rick Lippin
http://medicalcrises.blogspot.com

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