brian, going back to your earlier post about looking for information on the health care proposal(s)- I highly recommend factcheck.org for unbiased information. Here are some links I found interesting:
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/sev...t-health-care/
(From August; dismantles the "illegal immigrants will get free health care" claim)
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/11/clu...adillac-plans/
Addresses a misleading AFL-CIO commercial about the plan
In the end, the problem with our current system is that it's based on an insurance industry- and the problem with that is that insurance is meant to protect you against an unlikely, but expensive, occurrence (flood, fire, theft, etc). So a lot of people pay a relatively little amount of money to a company that makes money because it seldom has to pay out anything. It makes its money not on the people who do experience fire or flood or theft, but on the ones who don't. Health care is not unlikely; we're all going to need it at some point in our lives, and, to some extent, every year. So you're putting your necessity (health care) in the arms of an industry that makes its money by not providing service for a necessity.
I have reasonably good insurance, but I'm dealing with a limit on physical therapy visits, and the physical issue I'm being seen for (bum shoulder) is not clearing up. But my visit limit is up and the fact that I'm still in pain every day is not the insurance company's concern. I have a friend who spent 2 years of her life on crutches because her insurance fought her doctor on a knee replacement, claiming she was too young (she was 33). So, two years in the prime of her life, she couldn't walk, because the insurance company didn't want to pay. (Though they cheerfully shelled out for the antidepressants she was put on as a result of being almost suicidally depressed about being unable to walk.) They finally caved, but she'll never get those 2 years back.
It's gotta change. Who knows if this bill will end up being any good (the Senate can screw up a lot of stuff), but we're closer than we've been at any time before.