You aren’t bothering me, you’re not mean spirited. I just didn’t get your joke until I remembered Edward’s profession. The cold medicine is really taking its toll.

There is no us and there is no them. WE are human (everyone but the Neocons ;) ), with common needs that require moderation, consensus and compromise. If you believe as I do that it doesn’t matter that he’s a democrat. It doesn’t matter that he isn’t a DC insider and it certainly doesn’t matter that he is black and a Christian God fearing man. If you believe that he is the first offering of hope in a long time. If you’re still willing to hope. If you hope as I do that it is not too late for our federal government to return to its primary function of by the people and for the people. Then yes, you should vote for Obama. Regardless of your neocon aspirations, we won’t judge you 

I agree with you >from before> “Of course we would need to address the belief that somehow money can repay embarrassment and mental anguish, if no one is permanently disabled or dead, then I will step out on a limb and say that no money should change hands”

I like the way that France does some things, I like the way that we do others. For example (you probably already know this, but for the rest of the folks); As a new business I pay 2.56 percent of all wages paid to employees to the state unemployment commission to cover the cost of their programs for laid off workers). If I do not have claims, over time my rate goes down. This would be a great way to approach missed time due to injury at a business. It motivates employers/managers to provide both a safe working environment but also a safe shopping environment. It cuts out the middle men’s profit and only keeps the lean meat (ie the gov org in charge of running the program, regardless of your argument it’s impossible to win if you argue that a for profit enterprise with shareholders to pay is better for the consumer).

Imagine if you were injured due to undeniable gross negligence on someone else’s part. If there was no doubt that they did something stupid that hurt you and sent you to the hospital. You deal with pain and lost time at work. In a case like that, just having your care paid for is not necessarily enough.

That said, these days “undeniable gross negligence” does not need to be proved. Plain old accidental negligence is plenty to sue a person these days and that is sad.

Miller. You obviously have never been in the military or you wouldn’t be a universal health care enthusiast.

I’ve never heard or read anything about this with respect to universal health care, but if there’s a single payer, every provider will be limited as to what they could charge for a given provedure. If there is no competition on rates, everybody’s going to make the same, which would be caps on the incomes of doctors which means absolutely no incentive to have the best and brightest to enter med school.

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As a physician, and one who spent several years in the military, I couldn’t disagree more with these kind of generalized misconceptions.

Dave Briggman, I’d love to discuss universal health care with you but your talking points all revolve around myth and propaganda fed to you by the conservative media machine and you have proven no capability to discuss reasonably.

To anyone else wishing to discuss this matter, my post was about how universal health care could alleviate the problems of frivolous lawsuits by removing the “everyman for them selves” mantra that Neo Cons are preaching as gospel. I believe that if we had universal health care, then Pump-It-Up would not have been sued because this poor woman would have received the health care she needed and have been sent on her way. Of course we would need to address the belief that somehow money can repay embarrassment and mental anguish, if no one is permanently disabled or dead, then I will step out on a limb and say that no money should change hands. If the woman didn’t have her own health care then that is the only situation I see reasonable to proceed with such a lawsuit.

p.s. Seth, just one part of your post left me wondering, who are “you guys”?

But so long as we’re so far off-topic, it’s worth noting that the vast majority (noticed the restraint with which I didn’t capitalize that phrase) of citizens agree that universal literacy is a goal worth paying for, partly because it lessens the chance of growing the disadvantaged underclass. Hence, they pay for schools and libraries. Once upon a time, they didn’t. Fifty years from now, somebody may write these sentences about health care.