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Polls have consistently shown that half or more of Americans want Medicare extended to all. Despite all the propaganda on the right and from the corporate lobbies which trash Medicare as "socialism" and which make ludicrous predictions about its impending "bankruptcy," and despite all the propaganda and scare stories claiming that Canadians and Europeans hate their systems (a claim manifestly false, as proven by the fact that even conservative governments in those countries have been afraid to attempt to undo their public health systems for fear of voter wrath), most Americans are smart enough to understand that Medicare for All is what we need.
The problem is that the political system is broken. The Democrats elected to majorities in House and Senate, and the Democratic president elected a little over a year ago, don't see their role being to do what the public elected them to do. Rather they see their role as being to prevent the public from getting what it wants, in order to protect the interests of the very industries that are benefitting from the status quo--in this case the insurance companies, drug companies, physicians and hospital companies.
Until Americans rise up and start making politicians accountable to them, what we'll get instead of real reform or, in this case, real health care reform, will be rip-offs, screwjobs and flim-flam, which in the end, after months of sturm and drang is all the current health "reform" legislation really is.
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DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-area journalist. His is author of "Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For-Profit Hospital Chains" (Bantam Books, 1992). His most recent book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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