My math skills were never great. They began to atrophy when I got my first calculator and I lost another chunk after I gained a Business Manager. So there's a large part of the health care debate is that just, as Mr. Obama would say, far above my pay grade.
Still, I can see that something has to be done about all the folks in this country who have no insurance, all the people who do have insurance but discover (usually at the worst-possible moment) that it won't cover what they need it to cover, and the sheer fact that most health care is just too damned expensive. In intolerable numbers, people die and/or go bankrupt because of the system. In the absence of a fix, it'll eventually get so bad that even rabid Republicans will be wishing we'd passed the Hillary Clinton plan.
I follow as much of it as I can…as if anything I might say or do will ever make a difference. Two of the best sources of news and analysis I've found online are Ezra Klein and Jonathan Cohn. These are Liberal voices but so far, I haven't come across a Conservative take on health care that wasn't based on either or both of the following premises: That anything the government touches is invariably going to be a disaster and/or that it would be a shame to see the insurance companies not make every possible nickel off your Grandma's arthritis.
Opponents of revamping health care are losing ground every day. Every poll says that even G.O.P. voters want it fixed and you have entities like Walmart demanding health care reform. I can't believe something won't get done. But then again, I also can't believe we have Senators and Congressfolks acting like the system is fine or, at worst, just needs a little Bactine and a band-aid. Or maybe a loving mother to kiss the boo-boo.