Hooray Public Health Care!

Health Care for America NOW! is an advocacy group that wants to introduce public insurance as an option in America. It's what works in the rest of the world, and it's time to try it here. That'll require a change in law, which means it'll take some serious leadership (Read: A new presidident who's open to new ideas, and a Congress interested in solving the problem). In the meantime, it's decided that a little humor can go a long way in framing the issue. Slate has a short and good primer about how the HCFAN and the private insurance comanies are lining up for this fight.

But it's the right plan. Private Insurers rail against socialized medicine and say the market is the answer, so why not put the theory to the market test: Offer all americans the chance to keep their current insurance, try another private insurer, or sign up for public insurance, and see which one wins out. Public insurance plans, like Medicare, are famously more efficient and result in lower health costs for it's clients. Maybe that'll force Blue Cross and the rest to finally pony up and take care fo their customers. And it not, no problem. We'll have an alternative other than our employer's choice for our health care.