Sickness Profiteering

"Just say no!!" Apparently this is what conservative town hall protesters like to scream at elected representatives trying to hold conversations with their constituents about health care reform. It is clear these people do not understand that health care will be the ruin of the country if it is not reformed. I saw David Walker on CNN the other day talking about the oxymoron in wanting to decrease costs while also expanding coverage. He has a point. How could it be done? By replacing the health insurance industry with a national health insurance program. Bill Moyers did a program about this recently where it was mentioned that the health care industry is claiming they can work to save 2 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. It was then pointed out that doing away with the private health insurance industry itself would save 4 trillion dollars over 10 years while also covering everyone. The point was made that Medicare currently subsidizes private health insurers by taking the oldest and sickest off of the roles of private insurers. Pooling everyone together would even out that cost burden so the assumption that hospitals would be financially ruined under a system of national insurance is just false. While I'm at it, I don't think health care should be a for-profit business anyway. Seems like an inherent conflict of interest. Anyways here's the discussion on PBS.