GOP: The Lewin Group is the study we used to base our facts against health care reform. The Lewin Group is owned by United Health Group who paid $350 million settlement to its subscribers

United also paid their CEO 125 million in compensation in 2005. That CEO also was involved in a little bitty problem of back dating stock options and was let go. They are sucking the LIFE out of us in the name of profit.

How can people honestly look at this, and at those opposing reform who've taken tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars from the health care industry over the years, and still take these people seriously? (I'm not just talking about the GoP, here, there are Democrats just as guilty.)

I have a theory here. People (or...Sheeple...as the case may be)...don't have the stomach to stick to their guns anymore...figuring..."well...I still HAVE healthcare through my employer...so we better not change...I might LOSE that."

America? THIS IS WHAT WE VOTED FOR!

For nearly 8 years we were dominated by fear and "what might be's" from the Republicans...so much so that we "run home to mama" anytime they ban together and tell us the sky is falling.

If you actually KNOW how much your employer is paying toward your health care...then you have to know...THE SKY HAS ALREADY FALLEN! What we're getting stuck with per month is already criminal! The people suffering through medically induced bankruptcy or lack of care due to an existing condition or denial of services at the altar of MONEY is already a criminal problem!

I'm different. I'm self-employed...married...two kids. I can barely afford rising premiums for everyone in the house (ironically enough) except ME....(Highmark just raised the kids rate through SCHIP by a whopping 140%...our monthly outlay WITHOUT me, the breadwinner, is over 400 bucks)

...all this talk about tax credits and subsidy's and year end benefits is useless to me if I cannot afford to make the @#$X! payment every month. You read all this stuff in the bill and it DOESN'T make it any simpler...just different for the sake of being different.

Until you force Insurance companies to offer a reasonable (say 90-10) plan for a reasonable (say 40 dollars a head per household) REGARDLESS of pre-existing condition....and then mandate that EVERYONE have coverage....we cannot have real and affordable health insurance.

We can price fix commodities like corn and milk and stuff...why NOT insurance plans?

Insurance companies could STILL offer higher priced "cadillacs" to those of us that could afford them...but suddenly...the employer wins with a significant lowering of cost...the consumer wins with far more affordability...and yes...even the INSURANCE company wins by virtue of mandatory coverage (like auto insurance)....just 40 bucks a head generates a staggering 1.5 TRILLION in income for them annually.

We as a nation currently outlay 2.4 trillion in total for healthcare. AND...with everyone offering the same, base insurance plan?

Finally Ins. co's would have to compete on service and add-ons...rather than their ability to generate income by denying claims and refusing participants.

What's more, the people fighting to lower exhorbitant hospital fees would THEN become...oddly enough...the insurance industry. All without having to create huge new bureacracies or oversight committees...this is doable within our existing framework!

This doesn't solve the WHOLE problem. Still need to find a way to make a low income tier (20 a month per head?)...that gets everyone coverage...

But it finally addresses the heart of the problem...the painful nut at the core of our current system--criminally high premiums and a brutally penal sliding scale for people who had the grave misfortune of simply getting sick in our country.

COBRA brings the reality home. Personally? I don't have a problem with health benefits being taxed...it's INCOME you receive in the form of benefits rather than in a paycheck...but it's off point. If we don't put some handcuffs on the insurance industry's ability to gouge us...then we get absolutely what we deserve.

Remember the 4 D's of the Republican strategy during the Obama years: Delay, Distract, Distort, Deceive.

We are seeing their "fear and doubt"-inciting propaganda campaign bear some fruit.

The antidote is information -- the public needs to be better educated about what the proposed health care reform plans do and do not include.

A fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives: liberals build things, conservatives tear them down.

Examples are many including the public school system, public university system, library system, rural electrification, NASA(which has contributed to our innovation and leadership in many areas of science), interstate highway system (though Eisenhower, in a break with his own party, deserves some credit) and the current hospital system, which is not complete until we have a proper healthcare system in place. If this country was totally run by conservatives, imagine how far back we would be, somewhere between Somalia (with no government) and a religious theocracy, such as Iran.

Just think where we would be as a nation without a functioning, water system, school system, etc. and now you see the need for healthcare for a healthier populace. A system which is not perfect but is not leeching money off of the American people. The health insurance industry serves NO purpose, and it is fighting for its' life!

First of all I say blessings upon any and all who expose the Republicans/Lewin Group for what they are. Basic economics will prove we need and should demand a public option, it simply comes down to taking the profit out and adding care as a priority. Of course we are dealing with those who believe we can cut taxes and the defecit and never lose services.