[Harrison]

I’ll add my 2 cents too – with a question: did anyone see Healthcare Around The World on PBS? If I were king for a day, I would make all of elected officials watch this program. And again. And again. And again!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/etc/synopsis.html

It featured five other capitalist healthcare systems from around the world; the analysis and presentation was incredibly clear. Please try to find it in your local area or just read the web site content.

The points made are many. But one thing is for sure – if we Americans can do what Taiwan did – rebuild the national healthcare system from scratch – there is hope for all of us. For what it’s worth, the folks I know in Taiwan are pretty happy with their quality of care and choice of medical specialists. But we are not Taiwan for a long list of reasons. I fear our collective road to wellness will be painful, given the gridlock in Washington, entrenchment of business interests (big pharma, big insurance) and frankly, how unhealthy we Americans have become as a population of 310 million.

So I ask you, could Americans muster up the will – along with its elected officials – to completely rebuild the healthcare system?! Wouldn’t it have been nice if we spent the $700,000,000,000 on this national problem?

But as an editor, I am showing one of my many biases. So I’ll shut up, watch the news and say a lot of prayers!