bounded rationality

According to Herbert Simon most people are only partly rational and are in fact emotional/irrational in the remaining parts of their lives. Most of us can't process or compute the results of every alternative action and find ourselves coping with the limited information available to make decisions.

When the decisions seem too large to solve we shut down. We stop thinking about it and go on about our lives. This is happening all across America as citizens shut down their minds when contemplating government involvement in health insurance.

So since this topic concerns all members of American society and i'm pro government involvement. Here is part of a case for endorsement of a public option.

Taxes....Insurance companies have the power to tax and they tax the public mightily. When 20% - 30% of payments do not go to health care, but to denying care and profiting from it, that constitutes a tax on the 96% of voters that have health care. But the tax does not go to benefit those who are taxed; it benefits managers and investors. And the people taxed have no representation. Insurance company health care is a huge example of taxation without representation. And you can't vote out the people who have taxed you. The American Plan offers an alternative to private taxation.

Doctors care; insurance companies don't. An American plan aims to put care back into the hands of doctors.

Economics....we are losing our competitive advantage. Our corporations and small business are saddled with astronomical health insurance costs and as a consequence make our products and services more expensive and less competitive. The capacity to innovate, having a sophisticated business culture, effective public services, excellent infrastructure and well-functioning goods markets are key indicators of a thriving economy. Why is it Europe and Asia are increasing their employment roles while we are falling behind, they all have universal health care? Could the ridiculously high cost of health care in American have anything to do with why American firms are not hiring?

Government has two moral missions: protection (of consumers, workers, the environment, the old, the sick, the powerless; and empowerment( through public works; communication, energy, and water systems; education; banks that work; a court system: and so on.) Without them, no one makes it in America. Taxes are what you pay for protection and empowerment by the government, and the more you make the greater your responsibility to maintain the system.

When you fight against a public option you are not fighting for freedom of medical choice you are fighting for insurance company profits. The CEO's of the major insurance companies said in the congressional hearings recently that they would continue to deny care. They will deny you care that you believe you have paid for, why would anyone support this?

Countries with universal care admit there are problems...we admit there are huge problems here in the US.......nothing is ever perfect...but they would never dismantle their universal care.......they would improve it. Unlike us who want the same dysfunctional system to continue just so government doesn't have a hand in it. Crazy logic when there are other countries all over the world experiencing better care, better economies, higher standards of living etc. than we get.

Constitution
Art. I, Section 8 states:

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States."

That means that Congress can tax and spend for whatever it chooses, including health care, highways, and bridges, unless another part of the constitution forbids it (for example, the 1st amendment bars Congress from spending money for religious activities). So the question really should be, where does the constitution forbid Congress from passing health care reform?
We are already adversely impacted by our "insurance company free enterprise". Here are a few adverse impacts.
1) We spend more on healthcare than any other industrialized nation. If we don't reverse this trend, 20% of our GDP will go to healthcare within the next 10 years.

(2) The US healthcare system ranks 37th in overall performance, and 72nd based on health outcomes.

(3) The Center for American Progress forecasts the cost of the average family insurance policy will skyrocket from $13,000 today to over $22,000 by 2019.

(4) Our businesses - yes, American businesses - cannot compete globally because they are burdened by the high cost of providing healthcare to employees.

(5) Medical debt is the principal cause of bankruptcy in the United States.

(6) People are literally dying, either because they can't afford healthcare, or, because their insurers are denying coverage.

(7) The current healthcare system is economically unsustainable and will lead to the financial ruin of us all.

Status quo: If you oppose health care reform don't think you don't support a health care plan. You do. It's called the status quo. To help you understand what you support let's look at the status quo as if it were an actual bill.
Under the ‘status quo' plan a few for profit conglomerates will squeeze out all competition and run the most expensive and least efficient health care system in the world. As a nation we will spend $2.5 trillion dollars a year to receive health care worth $912 billion dollars. The cost per family for insurance will average $22,000 a year as compared to less than $2000 a year in Canada. This plan will rank 37th in outcomes and 24th in life expectancy. It will gobble up 20% of the GDP but in the coming years will rise at 3 times the rate of inflation sending the nation into bankruptcy. It will leave 45 to 50 million people uninsured and drop 15,000 people a day from its roles. 18,000 people will die from this insurance program each year (or 50 a day) because they can't afford health insurance and can't get the treatment they need. Under this program 2/3 of all personal bankruptcies will be health cost related. If you have paid your premiums on time all your life, you are as likely to be dropped by your private insurance company when you need life-saving care as you are to get treated.

The most important asset for a country is a healthy population. i don't understand why we don't want to invest in that?

And finally.......... Christianity demands more from those fortunate enough to be wealthy, and it demands social justice(affordable health care). Social justice does not mean tax cuts for the wealthy, who can then CHOOSE to give to the poor. It means that we take care of our poorest first. If we give money to the poor, they spend it, all of it, and it trickles up to the wealthy.

We want SMART government that will be there for those who need it. – NOT for those who take advantage of it, regardless of whether the one taking advantage is rich or poor.