This is the right wing conspiracy: Protect at any cost the privileged few while denying vital services for working people.

It is criminal to continue to allow absolute schills for corporate interests to continue to stalemate the state budget. Jean Fuller is one of these schills. Wouldn't want a yacht tax loophole closed while she's on the job, or to get a budget done on time. Jean Fuller is the biggest waste of tax dollars this community has ever seen.

Adampayne, I take exception to your comment. The BEST insured in this state are either government employees or those who work for those nasty "corporate" interests (including unions).

I once was insured (for about two years) with a carte blanche policy issued by the government. Didn't have to pay a dime for anything. Being self-employed is a completely different situation. We are now "working people" who make too much to qualify for any services and our premiums are through the roof. And we're trying to pay off a $16,000.00 hospital bill for the birth of our last child, while the "poor" walk away with free services and nine more babies.

And by the way, almost NO ONE delivering at Mercy Southwest even spoke English. I know this because the standard of care was so dismal that all of us gals delivering were in rooms separated by accordian walls. None of that touchy-feely-birth experience. All I heard were the two dozen Spanish speaking family members ten feet away from me yakking it up. They got it for free. I didn't. Does that make me racist? Just wondering.

I hear you, Vanityfair.  Barack Obama's health care ideas will do little for people like you.  McCain's plan is a step in the right direction.

If McCain chooses a particularly bad running mate, I might vote for Obama anyway, but only the convention will tell.

Is my memory getting lousy, or are the conventions and running mate announcements running really late this time around?

PawnThyself, I do believe the running mate announcements have been a game, because both worthless candidates know that their "electability" hinges on their pick. Personally, I think McCain should choose Lieberman to appeal to the more moderate constituency. From what I understand, they have a good personal relationship as well.

Lieberman would be a very good pick.

How is John McCain's plan a step in the right direction? Joh McCain's plan is basically more of the same insurance crap we already are suffering from. At this stage for profit insurers run the game along with the pharmaceutical cartel. We are at a place and time where 97% all firms (large and small) pay less than fifty percent of their employees' premiums. For an individual employee 77% of all companies offering health benefits pay less than 25% premium. For an employee with family coverage  working at a company offering health benefits 61% pay less than 25% of the premium. These statisitics are from a 2007 Kaiser study. If you want to access the report follow this link. You can view the incredible health care cost increases that have occurred in the past four years over all other economic indicators. You can see how the benefits have dramatically declined over this decade from the workplace.

McCain offers no solution. His plan is health savings accounts as a tax benefit and increased competition for an unregulated health insurance industry. Who do you think really benefits when a tax benfefit is formulated by Republicans? It sure is not the working family. There are a multitude of reports in the Google world you can access indicating that the only beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts are at the very top of the economic pyramid.

I find very disturbing that all of Europe with Taiwan and Japan can effectively cover all their citizens along with noncitizens living within their borders, but the United States cannot. We have an economy pegged near $15 trillion dollars and we spend over $2.2 trillion ( highest per capita expense on the planet) on health care and still see 15% of our population uninsured, and estimates by many economists that underinsured people may be at roughly 25% to 35% of the pie. We are the only country where you can go bankrupt over medical expenses. What does John McCain say about that? Nothing!!!!!

Not that any of this has much to do with our criminally incompetent Republican members of the California Assembly for failing to approve a budget. If you actually know what John McCain's vision for health care improvements are please let me know, because he has been vague to the extreme on the issue.

"Health Savings Accounts" do *EVERYTHING* wrong.  They're demonstrably worse than the current system.

I also hope McCain chooses Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who is now an independent.

RF, have you seen that AP article?

Here's what we can't do with health care:

Nothing

Anything that helps insurance companies

Anything that helps Drug companies

I agree that health savings accounts do nothing to help the problem. Poor and middle class people can't save money for a rainy day, how are they expected to save money so the insurance companies can still profit?

We need to turn the health care industry into a non-profit system that rewards doctors for having healthy patients.