You shouldn't feel disappointed if Obama does not pass a "single payer" system. In fact, in the world of practical politics, I would be disappointed if he did. I believe that a system with an adaquate mandate, public insurance to those who can't purchase it on their own, and a ban on insurance companies "creaming" should bring down insurance costs a great deal. This last thing is most important. In fact, I would call it a monumental success if a successful ban were passed. Basically insurance companies use about 30% of their revenues to do medical history research on their applicants. If that 30% were injected back into the risk pool then premiums would be drastically reduced. The point is that these are pretty simple and easy adjustments to the insurance market that could be done to fix the insurance market without implementing the dreaded "single payer".

Where the real reform needs to be done is in the market for health services. There are many very very complicated reforms that must be done to bring down the costs of health services. I will blog about this soon when I find the time.

I guess my point is that we can fix healthcare without a single payer and without risking control of the white house. I'd hate to have the republicans take over and start bombing Iranian goats because we passed a single payer bill when other more than adequate options are available.