Health Care

Health Care: I believe in universal health care and support the Democratic health care reform that passed the Congress earlier this year. But it's a budgetary mess. It's highly unlikely to "bend the curve" of health care costs downward, and there's no way it doesn't add to the deficit problem. Yes, it's worth the extra costs, but we will have to find a way to pay for it. I also support a "public option," which could offer the best of both worlds: private competition, but with a government plan to fall back on. Because the private market would be retained, you wouldn't be trapped in the government plan. A public option might not work if too many sick people joined the public plan, driving up costs and making it unaffordable for the healthy. But it's worth trying. If neither the subsidized, regulated private market ("Obamacare") or a "public option" succeeds, we may simply have to let everyone "buy" into Medicare, a proven program that works.