Friday Rant

I probably don't need to meddle into US politics again, but there's an extremely interesting article on the New York Times website today discussing how the country might come up with the money for a publicly funded healthcare system. If you want to read the whole thing (which I recommend), it is found here.

The article certainly has me shaking my head a bit. First off, I applaud the government for finally making it a priority to add public access to healthcare across the board. It is incredible to me that a country as wealthy and progressive as the US hasn't found a way to do this decades ago. Additionally, for full disclosure, I've been an advocate for a long time here in Canada that we should adopt some of the private healthcare options the US and many other countries have to buttress our current public system (but that argument is for another very long and winding rant).

What I find truly agonizing about this NYT article though, is that even though none are entirely without consequence, every single one of the options presented is promising and generally positive. Yet the politicians, under pressure from lobby groups like the sugar beet industry (seriously?!) will have to mangle the proposals to ever have a hope of getting one passed. It's an absolute travesty that something so vital to so many individuals can be held hostage by the makers of high fructose corn syrup, which is leading half of the people to need the healthcare in the first place.