MacArthur at Incheon: How to Win Health Care Reform

A doctor presents some very interesting ideas in the article generating a great comment discussion - well worth the time to read and consider:

The point of this history lesson, of course, is to recall that if you are bogged down in a stalemate, a surprise counterattack can be an overwhelmingly successful tactic to gain the upper hand. The forces of the status quo continue their fight to prevent real health care reform from taking place, and we pro-reform advocates remain hunkered down trying to defend the public option -- our last tattered shred of hope for change -- from annihilation. This seems like a good time to see where the opportunities are to counterattack: to throw our foes off balance, hit them where they're lightly defended and cut off the main thrust of their attack.

To do this, I suggest that we focus not so much on the public option: that defensive line where little movement is occurring. As it is, health insurers have no disincentive to keep stalling and chipping away, because doing so gives them nothing but upside. The way to shut them down is to show that stalling the process could hurt them more than it helps them. We should attack other important strategic targets which have already been neutralized by the forces of the corporatist status quo: health insurance reform, and cost reductions. The following are some specific ideas about how to counterattack.

The four basic premises are:

1. Remove health insurers' tort immunity.
2. Cancel the insurers' anti-trust exemption.
3. Make health insurers spend our premiums on health care.
4. Give all government sponsored health insurance programs access to the VA drug formulary.

Pleasse take the time to read it all at Daily Kos.