I get your points, Reg but . . . you didn't really address Pat's point about who gets covered.

I got sick while in the UK two years ago. Upon going to a doctor, I had to show ID and set up payment arrangements as a non-resident. I am for a public option, if for no other reason than to provide competition in the low-cost, basic services area of health care and to keep private insurers honest. However, I am not for covering anyone who isn't a citizen or legalized resident. Until that issue gets addressed, people will have legitimate concerns about the government's ability to control costs keep Obama's promise to not add to the deficit.

The way our Houston-area emergency rooms are used today amounts to legalized theft. My wife had a miscarriage several years ago for which we went to the emergency room. She ended up waiting over two and a half hours to get seen. I would say it was a fair estimate that over 90% of the people in the waiting room were speaking Spanish to each other, and we don't live in a Latino-majority end of town (although my wife is Latina). Of course I don't know what percentage of those folks were legal or not, but it doesn't take a genius to infer. I like to think of myself as tolerant, but this made me angry.