Health Care For Our Military Is Good Enough For Us

In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, Think Progress tells us the following (from here)…

Last week, the health insurance lobby met with President Obama and pledged to “work together” to provide quality, affordable coverage and access for every American. In less than five days, the insurers not only broke that promise, but the Washington Post reports that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has drafted ads aimed at smearing the President’s proposed public health insurance plan.

Think Progress also tells us that the various bad actors who plied their dark arts to help scuttle the Clinton health care plan in the ‘90s are at work once more, including PR guru Frank Luntz.

Yep, get ready for an updated version of “Harry and Louise,” people, only for a crowd closer to the under-50 demographic (“Trevor and Belinda”? “Dorian and Natalie”?).

However, at Igor Volsky notes here, any Repug who decries a “public option” will have a hard time doing so, considering the fact that the VA provides government-run care for our veterans, which is the way it should be as far as I’m concerned, to the point where an Obama administration proposal allowing private carriers to pay for combat-related injuries (and thus save the government about $530 million a year) was shot down (again, the right thing to do as far as I’m concerned; saving money at the expense of those who serve is never a good thing).

Also, on the matter of single-payer health care, look for another supposed argument to be floated that it is more costly than a private plan, even though Medicare, an example of a single-payer plan, caters to an older population that is bound to have higher premiums and more extensive coverage needs.

I don’t know if the Dems can squeeze all of that information about the VA and Medicare into a 30-second ad in response to what the Repugs and their “fellow travelers” are cooking up, but I hope they give it a good try.