GOP Healthcare Proposals Are A Joke

One of the most important issues in the current campaign for president is healthcare. It has become obvious that our healthcare system is not just broken -- it has become the laughingstock of the civilized world.

In the richest nation on earth, over 40 million people have no healthcare insurance at all, and millions that do have insurance are just one serious illness away from bankruptcy (medical expenses not covered by insurance are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S.).

This has become such a serious issue with voters that even Republican candidates are touting plans to "solve" the problem, even though they have traditionally not recognized a "right" to healthcare. They now recognize they cannot get elected unless they at least appear to care about healthcare.

But the plans the Republican candidates have come up with don't really solve the problems. They are little more than welfare for the big insurance companies.

Three of the candidates have had cancer themselves -- McCain, Thompson and Guiliani. Sadly, their silly plans would not even allow themselves to get healthcare coverage, if they were not rich or already covered by government-provided insurance (government insurance seems to be OK for them, but not for others).

Their plans are nothing more than providing tax breaks to help people to buy private insurance. But they don't want any rules that would force these insurance companies to accept those with pre-existing conditions (such as a previous bout with cancer).

Their plans would also still allow the insurance companies to refuse to pay for medical procedures they deem too costly or unnecessary. In other words, the insurance companies would still be making the medical decisions -- not the doctors.

These plans would do little or nothing to actually solve our nation's healthcare problems, but it would pump billions of dollars into the coffers of the already wealthy insurance companies. Once again, the Republicans are willing to ignore the problems of the citizens, while they help their corporate buddies to get richer.

Their is only one real solution to our healthcare crises. We must get the insurance companies out of healthcare, and institute a single-payer government system that covers everyone and puts doctors back in charge of making medical decisions.

Anything less is unacceptable.