President Obama's proposal for a House-Senate compromise on health care reform has been released. Jonathan Cohn has a quick summary, a link to a more detailed summary and a link to the whole PDF that you and most folks will never read. It's almost possible to believe this thing is actually going to happen.
I keep getting e-mails from people who…well, I'm not sure if they actually oppose Health Care Reform or they simply believe in opposing anything Barack Obama is for. But they keep sending me poll results that suggest most Americans are already satisfied with their health insurance. A couple of these seem to simply ignore that part of the crisis we have in this country is that so many people don't have health insurance. It's like saying, in a land where many are starving to death, "Well, the ones who are eating like what they're eating." Also, a lot of people are perfectly satisfied with their health insurance because they haven't gotten sick lately and so have never tested its value to their lives.
I'm generally satisfied with my health insurance. What I'm not satisfied with is how many friends of mine have none…and that's not just me being selfless to say that. It harms my life if my friends are ill or dying or need to borrow money for medical reasons. I am also harmed by what has happened to hospital emergency rooms, jammed as so many are with people who lack the financial resources for a simple doctor visit. Pollsters who ask, "Are you happy with your health coverage?" are really missing the point, in some cases deliberately.