Your flow chart is incomplete. There should be a decision element for "Are You a Veteran?". Followed by "Do You Have an Honorable or General Discharge?". If so, your healthcare is covered by the Veterans Administraton and there will be no change.

Do you have a pdf or powerpoint version of the chart? We'd love to bring it to our town hall.

Dr. Dean:

Your suggestion to provide an immediate, easy public health insurance option by simply lowering Medicare's minimum age requirement to Zero (or better still, conception) is beautifully simple. My question is: can this be done by Presidential Executive Order? Does it even need an Act of Congress?

If the answers are Yes and No respectively, then why not just do it (after modifying the commercial health insurance company rules as has been proposed)? After all, if President Bush could have modified Social Security to allow private investment accounts by Executive Order, do you think he would have hesitated even for one millisecond?

In the future, to reduce medical costs Medicare could be expanded to owning hospitals, and employing Physicians (paid on an annual salary basis). Do as the British NHS system does and only require doctors, etc., to work for Medicare for a minimum time of 50%, then they can spend the other 50% catering to private patients and charge by the case. Finally, to encourage people to enter the medical profession have Medicare train them to be doctors, at modest or no cost to the student. That way new doctors would not need to earn big incomes to pay off medical school bills, plus you could make their medical school training conditional upon them joining the Medicare system (for a minimum period, say 10 - 15 years).

But maybe such original, heretical thoughts are jumping too far ahead of the U.S. public?

Any thoughts?

Michael Northmore

You had me wanting to investigate your ideas and comments until you made the comment at the end trying to insult every day Americans who truly are concerned and trying to find an answer. Try some civility please.

Shelley:

On re-reading my comments I sense that you are absolutely right. I apologise.

However it was not my intention to insult every day Americans, or any Americans. I was trying (obviously ineffectually) to comment on the fact that all our fellow Americans are constantly subjected to a barrage of propaganda that distorts the facts of health insurance reform. For example: the notion that any form of government provided insurance or health care is socialism or worse, communism in disguise. I don't think people on Medicare or Medicaid would agree, or those receiving social security.

However I do feel Barack Obama does need to "educate" the American public on the issues. Many Americans work long hours to survive. Many families have both parents working, not because they choose or want to but because they have to. This is the Middle Class who are rapidly becoming the New Working Class. I feel so many of us do not have the time or energy to get up to date on health issues and so it's not difficult for politicians to get ahead of the country in this debate. That's not meant as an insult but as a concern.

I hope these remarks will encourage rather than discourage you from investigating my ideas and comments. I welcome your response.Shelley:

On re-reading my comments I sense that you are absolutely right. I apologise.

However it was not my intention to insult every day Americans, or any Americans. I was trying (obviously ineffectually) to comment on the fact that all our fellow Americans are constantly subjected to a barrage of propaganda that distorts the facts of health insurance reform. For example: the notion that any form of government provided insurance or health care is socialism or worse, communism in disguise. I don't think people on Medicare or Medicaid would agree, or those receiving social security.

However I do feel Barack Obama does need to "educate" the American public on the issues. Many Americans work long hours to survive. Many families have both parents working, not because they choose or want to but because they have to. This is the Middle Class who are rapidly becoming the New Working Class. I feel so many of us do not have the time or energy to get up to date on health issues and so it's not difficult for politicians to get ahead of the country in this debate. That's not meant as an insult but as a concern.

I hope these remarks will encourage rather than discourage you from investigating my ideas and comments. I welcome your response.

Dear Dr. Dean

You seem like a very knowledgeble person and one who can be trusted to do a good job and all my Dr.s have. I wonder why with such a scientific field as healthcare the world cannot band together and have one group as they do with IT or Walmart or Coke and then use that to push the world further into a piecfull place of no wars.