Reich on McCain's Health Plan

Robert Reich on why McCain's plan for health care won't work:

McCain has amended his plan: States would create “high-risk” pools for people with risky pre-existing conditions.

Wha? Lots of states already have high-risk pools. Thirty states require insurance companies operating there to cover people with pre-existing conditions. Problem is, the premiums they charge for such policies are often twice as high as those for people without pre-existing conditions, and the co-payments and deductibles they charge such people are beyond belief. In other words, the insurance companies technically obey they law. They do offer health insurance to high-risk people. But it's so expensive almost no high-risk person can afford it.

Why must we acquiesce to the insurance companies in plans to provide health care? They're vultures, vampires, fuckers who only want to make a profit, and they want to do it regardless of its impact on individuals, even if they suffer, in pain, or even if they die. I mean, this is a war, literally, and they are using all the tools at their disposal to win, regardless of the casualties. I mean that literally. Their tools are briefcases and campaign donations. They will... are.... strangling the country for the sake of their bottom line.

We need to do away with them entirely. Yet no politician -- and no one even on the far horizon -- has the fortitude to admit this, let alone to fight it.

I seriously think an issue like this can split our country in two and eventually even bring it down. How long are people supposed to suffer and die before they take matters into their own hands?