The thing that galls me about the Democrat plan is the individual mandate: throwing the responsibility on all of us individually to purchase private (in most cases for profit) health insurance or be fined. And this coming during the worst recession in 26 years, at least. That smacks of 'let them eat cake'. It is a textbook example of fascism in my book--to require people to patronize private business under pain of penalty. Instead of learning from European solutions, the Dems crafted a 1,990 page Rube Goldberg plan more complicated than the Medicare drug plan passed by the DeLay congress in 2005. That the Repukes call it "socialism" is idiocy. But if the Repukes aren't as dumb as we think, there may be method in their madness, and they may be craftily playing a winning hand. After the folks get saddled with an unpopular mandate to buy crappy and expensive insurance, what is to prevent employers from easing up on providing their workers health insurance? The workers would end up blaming Democrats for this state of affairs. While most people are focused on the potential for more hikes in premiums that the insurance companies are threatening if this bill passes, the reality is that premiums have been rising for years with no 'socialized medicine'.Insurance companies that collectively eat up about 30% of private healthcare dollars spent have been--and will remain under the Democratic plan-- in the drivers seat. How is this progress?

So premiums will continue rising, employers will stop insuring their workforces, individuals will be stuck with the mandates to buy unaffordable insurance, and government which is borrowing like there's no tomorrow promises to pick up some of the tab for those who don't make enough money to pay for their insurance. Who trusts government? I see a lot more downside than upside.