Re: Health care

It seems to me that Obama's plan isn't so much a challenge to the insurance industry as it is a way for a government plan to pick up slack in the margins. Theoretically, this would reduce emergency and long term costs by offering more people basic health care (and not rejecting people with pre-existing conditions).

Of the three remaining candidates, I'd say it is actually the most realistic proposal. McCain is suggesting no change is necessary. But anyone who has visited an emergency room lately knows that he's wrong on this issue. Clinton is proposing a much more extensive government program that we probably can't afford nor could she actually get passed.

Besides, I think people shouldn't be forced into the health care system. But they also shouldn't be given thousands of dollars of mercy treatments if they opt out. The current situation, though, with gainfully employed people either not qualifying for health insurance or not being able to afford even basic care is absurd.

Both my wife and I, looking at the three candidates positions blindly, found Obama's to be the most sensible position, even if it requires some tax increases.