White House On Public Option Letter: It's Up To Reid (VIDEO)

No, it's the thread where I call bullshit on acting like proposing that the government tax the rich to pay 94% of the cost of health insurance for millions of working poor families that have nothing now is a betrayal of the progressive cause and, indeed, of all that's good and decent.

I believe an uninsured family of four that's clearing (not making, clearing--it's a big difference at that level) 22k, and yet somehow does not qualify for Medicaid under the vast expansion proposed under the bill--i.e. virtually none of them--will gladly come up with fifteen bucks a week for the peace of mind of being able to get their kids in to see a doctor before conditions become acute. They'll gladly pay that amount to get primary care for, quite possibly, the first time in their lives.

I grew up in East Kentucky. I know more than a bit about what 22K a year means. My dad was making a lot less than that--adjusted for inflation--the year he died, uninsured, in a V.A. hospital of a case of lung cancer that was caught far too late. And if he hadn't been a vet, he would have died at home with no pain meds and no oxygen to ease him on his way.

I know firsthand what the constant anxiety caused by not having any health insurance for themselves or their kids means to people are just getting by. And, at least for a lot of working poor people in Appalachia, paying a little bit each week for their insurance is going to be the diffence between feeling like they own it and earned it and are entitled to it and feeling yet again like useless victims and wards of the state.

No, a family scraping by on 22K in take-home pay doesn't have 800 bucks in a lump sum and there's no way in hell most of them could come up with it. But they won't have to. They'll pay it the same way you pay for everyting else when you're poor: a week or a month at a time, as the bill comes due. But it least, for once, they won't be paying more for it because just they don't have the lump sum in hand.