So Dr. Angell is right. Obamacare needs to die.
There is reason to hope that it will die. Republicans oppose it, though not for any decent reason. They want unregulated private insurance and unlimited profits for health care industries. Ditto some conservative Democrats, who are also anti-government ideologues whose wallets are stuffed with health industry swag. But their reasons for oppposing health bill don't matter. All that is needed is for a few progressive members of the House and Senate to admit that the health bills being considered are not reform, but the antithesis of reform, and to also vote against it, and Obamacare will be dead.
At that point we can start seriously demanding that the Congress and the President act to bring us real health reform in the way that really works: expanding Medicare to cover everyone.
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DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist. He is the author of "Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For-Profit Hospital Chains" (Bantam Books, 1992). His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). Lindorff's work can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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