Can we get past our fear of change and come together to get this done?

While we're waiting for Kathie to get over her jet lag and show us some pics from walking the Western Highlands of Scotland, I'm going to throw myself into the healthcare reform debate. Having witnessed firsthand the inner workings of a Medicaid HMO, I can tell you that people are already making a LOT of money rationing healthcare.

So what got me going this morning? Like everyone else, I've been thinking about it for a while. On Facebook, I see several of my coworkers bashing Obama and his healthcare reform and I'm not clear on what their objections are. I love them all but - as women and mothers and nurses - how can they not want this system fixed? (Of course, that last assumes that the current proposal can fix this mess - a big assumption, I grant you.)

This morning, I found a link on Janet's kitties blog to a Washington Post editorial that makes sense to me. Here are the last two paragraphs from the editorial...

"Can there be anyone more two-faced than the Republican leaders who in one breath rail against the evils of government-run health care and in another propose a government-subsidized high-risk pool for people with chronic illness, government-subsidized community health centers for the uninsured, and opening up Medicare to people at age 55?

"Health reform is a test of whether this country can function once again as a civil society -- whether we can trust ourselves to embrace the big, important changes that require everyone to give up something in order to make everyone better off. Republican leaders are eager to see us fail that test. We need to show them that no matter how many lies they tell or how many scare tactics they concoct, Americans will come together and get this done."

OK, gloves off. I gotta go walk the mall.