Apparently the Hudson Institute is arguing that changing the present health care system here in the US will lead to a greater number of domestic bankruptcies do to medical expenses that an individual or family can not manage.

So they sent a doctor to testify before a Senate hearing.

Al Franken seems to have been prepared for that particular argument.

I haven't posted anything about Health Care reform. Not because I don't have strong opinions – as a parish priest who's had to watch way too many parishioners not be able to get medical attention because of their lack of income or of a job – and that changes your sense of whether the health care system works or not. I've stayed away because I think that people can disagree on the details of reform while still agreeing that it needs to happen.

But the late entry into the debate of the existing Health Care providers arguing against any changes now seems to me to be changing the dynamics of reform is a very unhelpful way. I'm glad there are folks in the government prepared to push back.

(I will add that my hyper-Republican brother spent enough years working in France that on his return to the United States, and the resulting collapse in his access to health care for his children (he's a minister and his congregation believes they need only supply minimal care for him) has had the effect of making him a veritable liberal on this particular issue.)