First, I don't agree that we have the "best healthcare system in the world" and I think you would have a hard time getting Ds, or Mick, or Alan, or Kathryn, or Don Pedro, or other people from around the world that post here to switch from the healthcare system they have to ours. We might have some of the world's best hospitals, doctors, and researchers and I suppose you could argue that point but then with all that behind us to benefit our citizens why then as Ross just pointed out are we such an unhealthy nation?

Second, illegal immigration and healthcare are two separate issues. Let's be very clear about that. We need to address both issues but not combine them and address them as one thing. The only reason they get combined is because it is ammunition for the folks that want to leave our system as it is. It's easy to point to crowded emergency rooms and yell "Look what these illegals are doing to our healthcare system!" but addressing crowded emergency rooms is also separate from fixing how Americans get their healthcare. This is the big problem to me when people start stirring all this stuff into one big stew it begins to look like nothing can be fixed or repaired. You have to break these items down into separate issues because they are separate issues.

Look, we should start with complete healthcare reform and yes, we should use other nations as models for how that care gets delivered. As far as crowded emergency rooms go there needs to be a solution to that as well but it does not connect to the healthcare delivery system that needs to be put in place. As Mr. Reid said in his talk going to the emergency room does not equal healthcare and if we have illegal immigrants in this country trying to use the emergency room as their doctor's office then that's a separate issue to address. Hospitals should study how to better control emergency room traffic and care in an emergency room I would think would be doled out on a priority basis and not on a first come, first served basis.

What I'm saying is these are not all the same problem and so we can't address them as such. I don't think the big question should be "who gets covered" I think it should be "why don't we have a better system already?"

Combining illegal immigration with healthcare always seems to me a way to muddy the waters and all it does is put up walls to solving the problems and clouds the issue.