(Update below) 

Not that I believe for one moment that anything in this report will actually get through the conservative-dominated Senate between the GOP fronting for health insurance corpo's and the Democrats reliant on health insurance corpo campaign $$$, but let's just for a minute imagine what might happen if the detail-less House plan actually became manifest.

House Democrats on Friday answered President Obama’s call for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system, unveiling a bill that they said would cover 95 percent of Americans. But they said they did not know how much it would cost and had not decided how to pay for it.

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The draft bill would require all Americans to carry health insurance. Most employers would have to provide coverage to employees or pay a fee equivalent to 8 percent of their payroll. The plan would also end many insurance company practices that deny coverage or charge higher premiums to sick people.

Uh-huh. Brilliant. The thing is, we don't have to imagine it. Massachusetts already did it. The employer (enforced) co-operation? Check. The mandated plan buying? Check. The "partnership" between govt and the industry? Check. Oh, it's all there. I was in Mass when all of this was put into operation two short years ago. Everybody - especially the doctors - was very high on it. They thought they had finally found a pretty good solution to an increasingly thorny problem. They saw light at the end of the health care tunnel.

That was two years ago. Today? Not so much.

Massachusetts members of the Physicians for a National Health Program released a report today faulting the state's experiment with health reform for failing to achieve universal coverage, being too expensive and draining funds away from safety-net providers.

The doctors' punch line is that the reform has given private insurance companies more business and power without eliminating vast administrative waste. In fact, it says, the "Connector" in charge of administering the reform adds about 5 percent more in administrative expenses.

Golly. The health care provider/profiteers found a way to make even greater profits by finagling administration costs as well as raising fees and premiums? I wouldn't have believed it, would you? And of course the new programs did nothing to relieve the usual HMO folderol.

The PNHP doctors' report says health plans people are forced to buy are not affordable and often skimp, making the mandate that individuals buy them regressive. And moreover, it says, peoples' experiences have shown that insurance does not guarantee access to care. The Boston Globe chronicled the long wait for primary care last September.

Um, could someone give me just one good reason why we should put up with highly expensive, non-working private health insurance when single-provider govt care a la Medicare is so much cheaper and more efficient? Not the Mass doctors who've worked with the system under consideration in the House, no. They couldn't think of one.

In summary, nothing less than single-payer national health reform will work, according to authors Drs. Rachel Nardin, David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, all professors at Harvard Medical School.

All due respect to George Miller - a genuine progressive - but this Max Baucus-inspired abortion is doomed before its first trimester. The Senate won't pass it because the Republicans don't like it and even if they did pass it, it would turn out to be an unworkable illusion and yet another potential bonanza for health profiteers. This isn't a Win-Win, it's a Win-Lose-Lose. The only one who wins is...oh, you know. The same Molochian monster that always wins when conservatives run the show.

We'll never - and I mean NEVER - find a real solution as long as we allow the Democrat conservative minority run the party for their corporate bosses, especially the health profiteers. This Third Way bullshit needs to be cut down in its infancy. For the umpteenth time (and as if they don't continue to reinforce it every freakin day) YOU CAN'T NEGOTIATE WITH RIGHT-WING TERRORISTS OR REPUBLICANS. They won't accept anything but ABSOLUTE AND UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. That's the game they're playing for. Bi-partisan, my ass.

The House Dems can't possibly NOT know that the concept they're playing with is so totally flawed as to be meaningless, not with Massachusetts' pilot experiment lying in ruins after a mere two years. To even pretend that this is a serious, worthy proposal is utterly irresponsible.

But of course it isn't a WP and they are pretending to be serious. As long as they're playing footsie with Republicans and the Blue Dog conservative minority, the Democrats will NEVER but NEVER pass a useful health care bill. The Republican "bipartisan" partisans and the conservative Democrat corpo-puppets won't let them.

UPDATE: (2.20pm) Maybe this explains it: "Health Care Alert! CDC Says New Virus Turns Republicans Into TakeOver Zombies!"

The Center for Disease Control today issued a national health care alert, Code Red, informing parents to warn their children away from watching Republicans talk about health care issues.

The CDC cautioned that virtually all Republican Congresscritters are exhibiting symptoms of zombie-like behavior, with rapid deterioration of the brain functions that control honesty, empathy and common sense. Irrational fears of imaginary horrors follow, the CDC explained, and may in some cases lead to intellectual paralysis.

So that's it. However, I expect a late-breaking update soon that the epidemic is spreading to Democrats as well. The signs are already there...