Once again the House of Rs is today dinking with trivia concerning public health.

Meanwhile, it is clear to most that only a comprehensive healthcare system covering all Americans can resolve the rampant inequities that block us from fully enjoying the benefits of modern medicine. The insurance model, which is now over 400 years old, just doen't work, and will only get worse if the present trend toward increasing concentration of wealth and income continues. Someone in your town will die this year, while someone else nearby is out buying his fourth large-screen TV, which will hang unwatched in the guest room of his rarely visited vacation home.

The reason we don't have universal healthcare is not about cost savings or fear of losing access. In no uncertain terms it's about the continuing effort to maintain "carve-outs" for executives and nefarious middlemen (aka "donors") throughout the system (or non-system if we're being honest). "Shareholder value"— both in health-related sectors and at the company making that unwatched TV—are clearly more important to lawmakers than health outcomes, as that marginal cash flow enables donations to those who willngly block progress, so that they might hang onto their perks a bit longer.