Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Health care reform as spectator sport

Since I am a federal employee as well as an active member of a physicians' organization that stands to gain or lose a great deal from the outcome of the U.S. health reform debate, I plan to refrain from commenting in this blog on tomorrow's televised bipartisan healthcare summit. However, I would like to share a serious excerpt from Matt Miller's otherwise tongue-in-cheek editorial (which I recommend reading in full) titled "Going for Health Care Gold: Who's Got the Better Game Plan?" in today's Washington Post:

The uninsured may seem invisible, but today their ranks are equal to the combined populations of Oregon, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Kentucky, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Arkansas, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming. Would America turn its back on the citizens of these 25 states if every one of them lacked basic health coverage?