Health care reform is expected to cost...

...at least a trillion dollars over the next ten years. That's a lot of money. In fact, as a former fellow worker of mine used to say, "That's foldin' money!" But the next time you hear someone say, "How are we ever going to pay for that!?!" consider that the war in Iraq has cost American taxpayers anywhere from one to three trillion dollars so far. And what do we have to show for it? That's the subject for another posting. But the point is, it's a question of priorities.

Another thing to consider is that every other developed nation on the planet has found a way to insure all of its citizens. And all of those countries have lower GDPs than the United States. Costa Rica, Morocco, Colombia, and Chile are all ranked ahead of the U. S. in health care outcomes, according to the World Health Organization. When I was growing up we were taught to call them Third World countries. We felt sorry for them. Now the WHO is telling us that they have better health care systems. How can that be? The country that won the Cold War and put a man on the Moon can't deliver health care as well as Morocco? I refuse to believe that.