4 hundred plus billion dollars  will be paid to subsidise the current insurance industrie . The same companys that got us to this point . all we are doing is flooding them with cash. This will not reduce our costs by one red cent! In fact it perpetuates the corporate control of the health care system. No laws saying they must use the money or any part of it for actual health care delivery, they could just put it in the bank ( that we paid for also) and give it to the top 2 percent as a bonus for doing such a fine job at stopping anything that may rock their boat . If there is no public option then there realy is no change comming except a raise in premiums for the american people. I say No public option - no need to "change " things!! let the system fail entirerly, then fix it with a single payer system . When its the representatives familys that cant afford health care and its their freinds and family that are turned away from health care - mabe then it will matter to them.

I am so ashamed of the Democratic party that I can no longer contribute to the re-election of this corrupt party. I shall send no more contributions until you pass decent health care reform.
I and many other Democrats in this nation are seriously considering changing our affiliation from Democrat to Green party or Independent. We cannot see lending support to a party that has failed so miserably to achieve what they were given ample means to achieve. The depth of corruption and sleaze in Congress and the Senate is truly astounding. Please do not ask me for any money for Democrats at any level until they show they can achieve Single Payer Health care, employee free choice, meaningful environmental reform and finance & banking laws that make sense.
I have registered hundreds of voters here in North San Diego County for the last four years and we were succeeding in turning the county Democratic Blue. Now I would be ashamed to ask people to support this corrupt political machine. I am asking every Democrat I can reach to stop all campaign contributions and to re-register as either Green or Independent. So far I have received nothing but agreement in reply. This is the end of automatic support for a party that has been bribed to work against the people. Straighten up, politicians - or go home.

The insurance companies are basically just big fat parasites living off the rest of us and giving little or nothing back period.

What I don't understand about lower class Republicans, is that they pay their taxes and then just accept that they get nothing back from the government for healthcare on it.

This is the greatest injustice by the US healthcare system at present. That a hard working American can work all their lives to subsidise health care for the rich and healthy. It's astonishing it's allowed to go on.

I'm Australian. I'll admit we don't have a perfect system. There are waiting lists. There aren't enough doctors in rural areas. The doctors that are recruited because finding doctors to work in hospitals aren't up to scratch. Hospitals in rural areas are always under threat of closure due to a lack of funding. Preventative dental care isn't free for everyone. And honestly, most of these problems could be solved by greater funding, or centralising healthcare to the federal government to avoid waste (which is being proposed at present). If one looks at the UK healthcare system, similar problems will come out.

But that doesn't mean people are left to die of cancer because they've run out of money. There are people in the Australian system who lose out big time and may go bankrupt- like full-time carers of the disabled- but they are a lot fewer than the toll on Americans.

The Republican senators don't like it because it will hit their back pocket. Since Nixon created this broken system, around the same time universal healthcare was introduced into Australia, they have been getting enough money to ensure they toe the line, and so they can afford all the healthcare that fits their need.

Where in that universe is the term "public service"? How morally bankrupt to completely disregard the needs of the constituency for a back-hander? I thought representing the interests of your electorate what what being a parliamentarian was?

The Republicans are the only conservative party of the two party systems' in the West who don't support public healthcare. All others have come to the table and have never tried to dismantle the system wholeheartedly.

The reforms Obama has don't go far enough. They are a start. There should be subsidies to private provider, and the rich should be taxed higher if they don't take up private health care because they can afford it. Drugs need to be cheapened and the prices of prescription drugs needs to be capped, as well as drug advertising. Drug prices need to be reined in- particularly for treatments such as cancer where the government would carry the burden. Private health care providers ought not be allowed to reject patients, but in five years time they should be allowed to mandate waiting periods on certain features to prevent abject abuse. Five years will ensure the transition for the entire US is complete and Americans understand the system better.

It's a lot more fair on the lower class Americans, who work hard for their minimum wage (which is a lot lower than other countries) and who have no government support if they get sick.