General Discussion

Medicare is something people have been paying into all their lives, seeing it come out of their checks in the expectation they'll be taken care of (at least somewhat) when they retire. When Democrats come out saying 'now we're going to give it to everyone!' it does NOT go over well, esp. not with current recipients, and we've already seen that. The much-more-politically-tenable thing to push for is a public option that's paid for with premiums. As long as it's set up fairly and it's proponents are effective communicators, it's not that tough a sell (to the public, at least). We-The-People are just competing with the for-profit companies, which we should absolutely have a right to do. It's FREEDOM at its core.