How Complicated Is It Really?

So apparently, there are some in Congress who are feeling hesitant about passing health care reform bills because they are not, as currently designed, bringing costs down enough.

Here's a news flash --

Medical stuff + trained medical people = some amount of cost

Medical stuff + trained medical people + insurance companies making a profit = way more cost!

What is the obvious thing to remove from the current equation?

And yet, a single-payer system, that would reduce paperwork and costs for everyone and ensure that those in charge of who gets what kind of care would be accountable to voters, never even made it onto the table in this debate.

President Obama warned Congress that they're going to have a lot more sleepless nights so they can finish this. Maybe if they end up with as many sleepless nights as the Americans all over the country struggling not to go bankrupt because of medical bills they'll start to get it.


Update: Here's some good news on the single-payer front from The Nation.

Plus, if you want to read a long article that makes some excellent points about the current realities and how they could be different, Peter Singer wrote about rationing health care consciously and unconsciously in the NYT a few days ago.