do nothing Democrats????

seems the Democrats in Washington state have some "do something" ideas about addressing healthcare. seems by taking the profit motive out of healthcare it changes the whole equation. healthcare infrastructure(clinics, hospitals, etc) should be properly funded and healthcare providers should be paid well for their services but william mcguire should not be obscenely wealthy for "doing what"??????
great piece by David Sirota and
Kudos to Sen.Karen Keiser!!!!

David Sirota
Digging in the right place
Friday,
January 18, 2008

...........In a move making health care lobbyists quiver, Washington state Sen. Karen
Keiser (D), chairwoman of her legislature's powerful health committee, this week
introduced the nation's most far-reaching universal health care proposal. Her legislation is the American West's version of a parallel Wisconsin initiative,
and the replication suggests this model may begin building the universal health
care system our country wants.The plan is simple: Employers and employees
pay a modest payroll tax in exchange for full medical benefits, with no premiums. Patients never lose coverage and pick the doctors they prefer. And for the spendthrifts, here's the best part: According to an analysis of the Wisconsin proposal by the nonpartisan Lewin Group, the plan would save middle-class families an annual average of $750 on their existing health care bills. In all, the state would save almost $14 billion over the next decade.
Seem too good to be true? That's because you're used to being bilked by an insurance industry that drives up premiums, drives down benefits and gives executives like former UnitedHealth CEO William McGuire $1.6 billion worth of stock options in one year.

Eliminating that greed is precisely how the Washington state and Wisconsin proposals simultaneously save money and cover everyone.Unlike the much-touted Massachusetts law forcing citizens to buy insurance from the private profiteers, the Washington and Wisconsin models pool all existing health care expenditures and then replace the middlemen with one publicly controlled, not-for-profit system. That structure attacks problems beyond the immorality of allowing 18,000 Americans to die each year because they lack health coverage.
For businesses faced with crushing health care costs, the Lewin Group predicts the plan will save private-insuring employers almost $700 million a year. For politicians looking to provide economic stimulus in the face of a recession, the nonpartisan Families USA estimates the proposal's investments will create 13,000 new jobs. Even tax reformers have something to like, as Wisconsin's version directs much of the system's savings into property tax relief.
The Royalist Right is distraught about the plan. When an initial draft passed the Wisconsin Senate last year, the Wall Street Journal's editorial board attacked it on the grounds that it "reduces out-of-pocket copayments" and "increases the number of mandated medical services covered" for patients. Wow. Sounds just awful.
full article