Happy 4th of July, Minnie. I am not a Republican--more of an independent like Petie I suppose (though I couldn't disagree more with the idea of a flat tax). But I honestly believe that fixing the health care system is something that Republicans and Democrats need to work together on and I intend to hold my representatives responsible for that regardless of which party they belong to.

I'm all for free enterprise but there are some things that should not be for profit and one of those is the health of our nation. The current system is hurting not just individuals who can't afford insurance, and individuals who pay for insurance and then get screwed by their insurance companies (because otherwise they might not make huge profits), it is hurting our businesses, especially smaller ones, who can't really afford to pay for health insurance benefits. And we all pay anyway when so many are uninsured because by the time they end up getting care, at public hospitals that have to take them, they are sick in major ways that could be prevented if they had gone to a doctor earlier. Where does the money needed to care for them at these public hosptials come from? From us, in the long run (both in higher insurance rates for those of us who are paying for insurance and from public funds).

It just doesn't work to have health insurance be something that has the primary goal of making a profit. The primary goal should be care of people who need it--preferably preventative care which will save billions of dollars in costs overall in the long run. As Moore pointed out in his movie (and I tend to be impatient with people who dismiss his movies without seeing them, though I do agree that he does gimmicky things), if we don't start thinking like a "we", as people DO think in most other Western Democracies, this will never happen. And that means we have to get beyoind derogating someone because they have different party allegiances and looking for areas of common agreement.

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now!

Nelie