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  Once again, you dredge up the bogeyman of a single-payer government plan. That may be Obama's ultimate goal--along with universal coverage--but the bill in Congress is only a small step in that direction: a government health care OPTION to compete with private coverage. God knows, we need to change the dysfunctional system (from denying insurance to people with potentially expensive-to-treat pre-existing medical conditions to hiking premium costs). I doubt that Congress will enact the government plan. But just the threat of it has scared the insurance companies into making concessions that will cut into their obscene profits. Unbridled capitalism sometimes needs to be reigned in. Now is the time for the insurance companies to regulate themselves if they want to ward off the specter of the single-payer system.

 An afterthought: there are multiple ambiguities in the current health care bill. There is still lots to be ironed out and thrashed about and perhaps even trashed.