"We warned the president -- don't ever, ever agree with the Republicans,"

[JDPriestly]

44. I'm with you, ProSense, on this one.

It is ridiculous that people who can afford to pay for health care think they don't have to pay their fair share for it.

Health care is expensive, and we all have to help pay for it. Even seniors on Medicare pay a co-pay and, if they are on a Senior Advantage plan or something similar, a premium.

I would prefer single payer. I would prefer to have the essential insurance coverage be directly between the doctor and the patient with the doctor billing a non-profit, single payer administrator. I think that would be cheaper and certainly just as efficient as what we have now.

Ironically, one of my Republican relatives who rails against Obama-care has had to wait for months to get knee surgery that she needs. Our "best health care in the world" is, while having different priorities than health care in European single payer countries, not a bit faster or better.

In my experience, the European health care emphasizes prevention more than ours does. Since Obama's health care bill passed, I think that our system is promoting prevention more than it previously did. That is a great improvement in and of itself.

Unfortunately, some of the best aspects of the Obama plan will not be felt by people until 2014 -- if ever.

The mandate is intended to lower the health care costs for the individual by spreading the burden of covering the costs of the uninsured across the entire population. Good idea!