The Reform That, to the White House, Dare Not Speak Its Name

"It's not single payer advocates who are harmed by this wall of exclusion, it's all the American families and patients who yearn for real reform and will almost surely be disillusioned by proposals that fail to achieve it. Because you can't genuinely rein in costs without tackling them at the source -- the insurance companies and their built in incentive to perennially jack up premiums, co-pays, deductibles and all the other ATM-type fees that are bankrupting families and crushing businesses. Nor can you begin to address the callous and routine denial of care for those already insured by the claims adjustors and bean counters who don't want to pay for it. There's another potential casualty here as well, President Obama who himself famously said in 2003 that he was a proponent of single payer and must surely know it is best approach. A lot of political capital will be expended to pass reform this year, it ought to be devoted to a reform that will actually work."