Here we go again. Liberals site one terrific sob story out of 200 million and want to rip off more taxes from everybody. Did ya hear the one about the little ole lady that stubbed her toe and was so obease she fell and burned herself cause she is a chain smoker? Well vevrybody dig deep to buy her more food and cigarettes and a bandaid :(

Tonto, you're paying for the little ole lady now, buddy. She's on Medicare. As someone who paid into Social Security and Medicare for decades, I'm not looking forward to Medicare, but at least you and I will have it some day. You want to pay for health care your entire working life and then not get it when you retire?

Now we gotta get rid of the marriage penalty. My daughter got married because we encouraged that instead of just living together and she lost her health care coverage on our insurance.

David Leonard, I agree with your comment, but I can also see how a parent might forget all of what's involved in a grown child getting married.

Judy R, thanks for the reminder of a good reason for kids under 26 not to get married unless one of them has a job with family health insurance coverage available or neither has health insurance to begin with.

Nearly every state (except New Hampshire) "requires" motorists to carry some type of auto insurance. What, they can't do that according to the arguments surrounding healthcare.

According to the most recent data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Insured drivers pay a hefty price for fellow motorists who have no policies — $10.8 billion in 2007. Wow, so those motorists that choose to ignore purchasing insurance cost insured motorists that much money?

So how much do you think those without healthcare insurance cost consumers?
The Kaiser Commission provides some resources http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/the-cost-of-care-for-the-uninsured-what-do-we-spend-who-pays-and-what-would-full-coverage-add-to-medical-spending.pdf

We wonder what's been going on in this country. I think Herbert Hoover sums it well when he said, "The trouble with capitalism is capitalists; they're too damn greedy."

+1, P. Observer! Great comment!

It is interesting how there seems to be a double standard. President Obama can run to the middle from his extreme liberal left position, but Mr. Romney can't. How do you think Tom Vilsack was elected governor of Iowa?

Enough about politics I think it is a bit of wishful thinking if we think ObamaCare or ObamneyCare, whatever you want to call it, is going to fix all our health care problems. Until people realize that they are part of the cause of higher health care then we don't have a chance to fix it. It is so easy to place the blame on health insurance companies and target how much their executives are paid, instead of grasping the nature of what an insurance company does. First of all, they are in business to make money If they don't make money then they can't hire people and they can't offer health insurance to their workers They have actuaries who compute potential risks (how many people will become seriously ill or die in a given year or decade and price their product accordingly) Other businesses have risks that they account for and price in their product accordingly as well. I think just because the health insurance industry by nature, deals with health challenges in peoples lives, and has made some mistakes in the past, like we all have I would like to point out, they have become the villian that many people quickly blame.

In closing, I believe America is still the greatest country on this earth, however, too much government is going to ruin it.

Rob Wilson, my understanding of the Affordable Care Act is that doctors won't be paid according to how MUCH care they provide but based on results. We need to change the payment model for health care professionals to one based on results so that doctors are more willing to confront their patients regarding obesity and other preventable factors, elements that yes, people need to take more responsibility for.

I am lucky in that I had one parent who was an athlete all of his life and one parent who served as a role model for what NOT to do. Guess who died first, and almost two decades earlier, though they were the same age when she died?

I've lost 25 pounds and have gone on RAGBRAI nearly every year since 1991. We all need to take responsibility for our health and fitness.

Obesity is definitely a cultural issue. Minimizing and denying cultural influences is to misunderstand the problem.

What I conclude, Maria, is that health care must be removed from the profit sector of the economy. Consider: health care is not a service that I can contract for when I choose, but a necessity when I become sick or injured. Health care is not a commodity, like petroleum or ag products, which can be sold on an open market.

Look at education: ensuring our children are literate and numerate is so important we cannot entrust that duty to for-profit entities. The irony here are the for-profit colleges, which spend more on marketing than they do on instruction, and which would wither and die if not for access to federally-guaranteed student loans. The for-profit colleges have a dismal record of preparing their graduates for careers, but are great at loading their students with unsustainable debt. And for-profit colleges cost MORE than your typical Ivy League school! So much for the "efficiency" of the capitalist market!

Like housing, health care is a fundamental human need. When the Constitution was written, medicine was hardly a "science," surgeons used burly assitants and alcohol to control and subdue their patients, while doctors routinely bled and cupped their patients. The Founders could not be expected to foresee how vital medical care would become.

You are right on when you note that the GOP has offered nothing but veiled cruelty and deprivation as its preferred healthcare policy solution.

Jeff Klinzman, thanks for your support and your explanations of how most Americans are getting screwed by our capitalists-in-bed-with-politicians (of both parties) oligarchy. Republicans are the worst, as you say. The Paul Ryan budget and Mitt Romney's agenda are both heartless and hurt the most vulnerable.

Take Republican Gov. Terry Branstad's decision to refuse federal money to cover 100% of an expanded Medicaid system that would include the working poor who are single and childless currently on IowaCare or Iowa Cares (not sure of the name). Medicaid has better coverage than IowaCare. Why would you want to punish the working poor by depriving them of benefits refused to them by their employers? Just one more reason to NOT reelect Terry Branstad when he's up for reelection.

Jennifer Zeis, people don't need to own a vehicle to get around, you're right. My grown kids don't own cars, and they get around by bicycle and by walking. They've been doing that almost their entire lives. There's also bus service in Iowa City, which is nice.

However, all humans need health care at some time or another. Uninsured people who don't get health care until they're in extremis cost the system more by going to Emergency Rooms and running up a bill they can't pay. Forcing people to buy health insurance will mean they pay for health insurance instead of hospitals and doctors passing on the costs of uninsured patients without health insurance, people who don't or can't pay their bills, on to the rest of us.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Affordable Care Act will save $100 billion over the next 10 years. Preventive care alone, which will be free, saves money because you address medical issues earlier before they become serious.

Here's a link to today's NYTimes story about the $3 billion fine levied against GlaxoSmithKline, which was offering cash incentives to doctors to presribe on the GSK's anti-depressants for non-FDA recommended uses.

The FDA is a prime example of the need for federal regulation of the marketplace. Let's remember the reality which led to the formation of the FDA: adulterated food and meat produced in filthy conditions, and an unregulated pharmaceuticla industry which sold addictive drugs such as morphine in patent medicines.

Would the Founders have anticipated the rise of the modern pharmaceuticals industry? Would they have foreseen the industrialization of food production? I doubt it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/business/glaxosmithkline-agrees-to-pay-3-billion-in-fraud-settlement.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120703

Jeff Klinzman, in my opinion the government should nationalize all pharmaceutical companies, especially when they create an artificial shortage of cancer-fighting drugs. Bayer sells a product for farmers that kills all bugs, including honeybees. You just wonder what Big Pharm is NOT willing to do to make a profit.

So all of the good chemists will leave and do something else? This is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard you say Maria, and I've heard you say a lot. Luckily this will never happen. What happens when these government run pharmaceutical companies release a bad drug that causes harm? Who are the people going to look to for compensation? Why would these companies continue to exist absent the motivation to create and sell their medications? Why would they bother developing any more drugs? What planet do you live on? Also, drop the whole holier than thou attitude already, nobody cares if you do Ragbrai, nobody.

Thanks, Jeff. Matthew's comment looked like a personal attack to me, too, and I reported it.

I am one of those Americans who have lost faith in our institutions. I'm currently reading Charles H. Ferguson's "Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America," which certainly doesn't improve my faith any. The book is a revelation even after reading Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera's book about Wall Street's gambling away our economy, "All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis."